Prof. Ondřej Mašek holds the position of Personal Chair of Net Zero Emission Technologies at the University of Edinburgh, where his innovative leadership at the UK Biochar Research Centre (UKBRC) is setting new standards in the field of biochar production and development. With an 18-year career dedicated to advancing the thermo-chemical conversion of biomass and fossil resources into sustainable value-added products, Prof. Mašek's work is at the forefront of efforts to enhance energy efficiency, promote sustainability, and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since joining the University of Edinburgh in 2009, Prof. Mašek has co-founded the UKBRC within the School of Geosciences, establishing it as a leading institution in biochar research and application. His pioneering research is focused on converting biomass into biochar and its co-products, aiming at carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation while also improving agricultural productivity and resilience. Prof. Mašek is particularly renowned for his expertise in engineered biochar, where he applies advanced techniques to optimise its production and application, ensuring maximum environmental and economic benefits with minimal resource use. Prof. Mašek's collaborative efforts extend far beyond the borders of the UK. He has led and participated in numerous projects in the UK, EU, and internationally. This global reach is a testament to his ability to forge strong partnerships with industry stakeholders ranging from innovative startups to international corporations. His scholarly contributions include over 200 peer-reviewed papers with over 11,200 citations, an h-index of 55, and an i-10 index of 128 (on Google Scholar). In 2023, he was recognised as a highly-cited researcher, placing him in the top 0.1% of researchers worldwide. This international recognition underscores his significant impact in the field and his potential as a valuable collaborator for international stakeholders. Leading a dynamic research group of post-doctoral researchers, PhD and MSc students, and visiting scholars, Prof. Mašek is exploring a wide array of biochar-related applications. These include atmospheric carbon removal, environmental remediation, construction, and innovative uses in polymers and fermentation processes.

Yakov Kuzyakov (born August 27, 1963 in Moscow) is a soil scientist and ecologist whose research focuses on soil science, ecology, land use, carbon and nitrogen cycling, the rhizosphere, and climate change. After graduating in 1986 from Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, he earned his Ph.D. in 1990 at the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, where he later led a radioisotope laboratory. He moved to Germany in 1993, working at Humboldt University and completing his habilitation at the University of Hohenheim in 1997. Kuzyakov became a professor of Agroecosystem Research at the University of Bayreuth in 2006 and, since 2011, has held the chair of Soil Science of Temperate Ecosystems and Agricultural Soil Science at the University of Göttingen. His work is widely recognized for advancing understanding of plant-soil interactions, particularly carbon and nitrogen fluxes in the rhizosphere, the priming effect, microbial "hotspots," and decomposition of organic compounds. He has pioneered innovative methods such as isotope tracing, zymography for enzyme visualization, and root exudate tracking. With more than 960 publications and an H-index above 120, he has been named a Highly Cited Researcher multiple times and is considered one of the leading global experts in soil ecology and biogeochemistry.

Dr. Scott Chang is a Professor at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on soil nutrient cycling, land reclamation, agroforestry, and global change biology. He has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Ecology & Evolution, Nature Communications, Global Change Biology, and Ecology Letters as a corresponding author. He was named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate in 2023 and 2024. He was elected a Fellow of the International ESG Association (2023), the Canadian Society of Soil Science (2018), the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA, 2016), and the American Society of Agronomy (ASA, 2016). He received the Environmental Quality Research Award (2025) from ASA, the Soil Science Research Award (2024) and the Soil Science Applied Research Award (2023) from SSSA, as well as the Kingenta Agricultural Science Award (2020) from ASA.

Dr. Jörg Rinklebe is Professor for Soil- and Groundwater-Management at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. He has been selected as ISI Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. Prof. Rinklebe was Vize-President, President and is now Past-President of the International Society of Trace Element Biogeochemistry (ISTEB). His academic background covers environmental science, bioavailability of emerging contaminants, and remediation of contaminated sites. His main research is on soils, sediments, waters, plants, and their pollutions and linked biogeochemical issues with a special focus in redox chemistry. He also has a certain expertise in soil microbiology. Prof. Rinklebe published plenty of scientific papers in leading international and national journals. According to SCOPUS data base (20.05.2025), he published 580 articles, which have been cited 46,923.0 times with h-index = 114. Also, he published five books entitled "Trace Elements in Waterlogged Soils and Sediments" (2016), "Nickel in Soils and Plants" (2018), "Soil and Groundwater Remediation Technologies" (2020), "Vanadium in soils and plants" (2022), "Methylmercury Accumulation in Rice" (2024), as well as numerous book chapters. Prof. Rinklebe was serving as Editor in Chief for Environmental Pollution, and he was Editor of the Journal of Hazardous Materials; Co-Editor in Chief of the international journal Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) and guest editor of the international journals Environment International, Chemical Engineering Journal, Science of the Total Environment, Chemosphere, Journal of Environmental Management, Applied Geochemistry, and Environmental Geochemistry and Health. Also, he is member on several editorial boards (Ecotoxicology, Geoderma, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Archive of Agronomy and Soil Science). Prof. Rinklebe was the chair of the first joint international conferences of Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements" (ICOBTE) and "International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment" (ICHMET) in September 2023,. He was an invited speaker (plenary and keynote) at many international conferences. In 2016, Prof. Rinklebe got an appointment as Honorable Ambassador for Gangwon Province, South-Korea which was renewed in June-2018. Also, he got an appointment as Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, Visiting Professor at the Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea and Guest Professor at the China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

He got those awards:
- Award for internationalisation of research and teaching: Weltlowe
- JIOMICS & Proteomass Scientific Society Career Awards
- IESGA Fellowship Award 2023

Dr Nanthi Bolan is the Professor of Soil Science at the School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia. Nanthi's teaching and research interests include agronomic value of manures and fertilisers, soil acidification, nutrient and carbon cycling, greenhouse gas emission, soil remediation, mine site revegetation, and waste and wastewater management. Nanthi is a Fellow of American Soil Science Society, American Society of Agronomy and New Zealand Soil Science Society, and was awarded the Communicator of the Year (2005) award by the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Nanthi served as the Associate Editor of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technical Editor of Journal of Environmental Quality. He served as the Program Leader of Cooperative Research Centres for High Performance Soil (SOIL CRC). Nanthi has supervised more than 50 postgraduate students, and was awarded the Massey University Research Medal for excellence in postgraduate students' supervision. Nanthi has published more than 500 book chapters and journal papers with a total citation of > 64,500 and h-index 127 (Scopus), and is one of the Clarivate's Highly cited researchers for 2018 to 2022.

Prof. Meththika Vithanage is a distinguished academic and the founding director of the Ecosphere Resilience Research Centre at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Prof. Vithanage also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Agriculture, University of Western Australia, and the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, with previous affiliations at the National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka. With an interdisciplinary focus spanning water chemistry, environmental remediation, microplastics, and waste biomass conversion, she has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate, ranking in the top 0.1% of highly cited scientists globally. Her accolades include the prestigious 2026 TWAS Award in Earth, Climate and Environmental Sciences for her groundbreaking research on biochar, underscoring her commitment to advancing sustainable solutions. Prof. Vithanage's publication record includes over 275 SCI-indexed journal articles, 60 book chapters, and 10 co-edited books, making her a prolific contributor to the global scientific community. With a citation record exceeding 29,000 and an H-index of 86, her work has had a profound impact on the fields of environmental sustainability and resilience. Beyond academia, she has actively engaged with the public through more than 100 newspaper articles, furthering scientific literacy and advocacy.

Dr. Hailong Wang is a distinguished professor in environmental science at Foshan University, China. Prior to his professorship in China, he was a senior scientist at Scion, a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. His research focuses on application of biochar and its impacts on the ecosystems, and remediation of contaminated environments. Dr. Wang is a Highly Cited Researcher, an Executive Editor for BIOCHAR and Carbon Research, and the Director of The Biochar Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Province. As a board member of the International Biochar Initiative and the China National Biochar Technology Innovation Alliance, and the Chairman of the Biochar Industry Technology Innovation Alliance of Guangdong Province, Dr. Wang works closely with the biochar industry.

Professor Yamauchi focuses on the design of novel nanocrystals and nanoporous materials toward various applications including batteries, fuel cells, solar cells, chemical sensors, field emitters, and photonic devices. Specifically, nanoporous metals can be produced through surfactant-based synthesis assisted by electrochemical methods. Owing to their metallic frameworks, nanoporous metals possess high electroconductivity and high surface areas, holding promise for a wide range of electrochemical applications. Furthermore, he has developed several approaches towards controlling the orientation of tubular nanochannels. The controlling the geometry of nanochannels at a macroscopic-scale is important for innovative applications such as chemical devices and electrodes with enhanced diffusions of guest species. Professor Yusuke Yamauchi received his Bachelor degree (2003), Master degree (2004), and Ph.D. (2007) from the Waseda University, Japan. After receiving his Ph.D., he joined the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, to start his own research group. At the same time, he started to serve as a professor to supervise PhD students at Waseda University. He led a team of more than 40 members including senior scientists, postdocs, technical staffs, and PhD students. After being granted the ARC Future Fellowship, in May 2016, he joined the Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), The University of Wollongong (UOW) as a full professor. In 2017, he moved to The University of Queensland (UQ). Presently, he is a senior group leader at the AIBN and a full professor at School of Chemical Engineering. He concurrently serves as an honorary group leader at NIMS, a visiting/adjunct/honorary professor at over 50 universities in the world (UOW, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tianjin University, NanJing Tech University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Kyung Hee University, National Taiwan University, King Saud University, King Abdulaziz University, and Waseda University, etc), and an associate editor of the Journal of Materials Chemistry A published by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). He has published more than 900 papers in international refereed journals with with >70,000 Times Cited (h-index >137, Google Scholar; h-index >128, Web-of-Science). He was selected as one of the Highly-Cited Researchers in Chemistry in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 and in Materials Science in 2020, 2021, and 2022..He has received many outstanding awards, such as the NISTEP Award by National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (2016), the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award for Young Chemists (2014), the Young Scientists' Prize of the Commendation for Science and Technology by MEXT (2013), the PCCP Prize by the Royal Society of Chemistry (2013), the Tsukuba Encouragement Prize (2012), the Ceramic Society of Japan (CerSJ) Award (2010), and the Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists (2010). Recently, he was selected as one of Australia's Top 40 Researchers in a special Stars of Research Report published by The Australian.

Prof. Dan Tsang is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Pao Yue-Kong Chair Professor in the State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilisation at Zhejiang University in China. Dan was a Professor and MSc Programme Leader at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland in Australia and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, Visiting Scholar at Stanford University in the US and IMETE Scholar at Ghent University in Belgium, and postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College London in the UK. He has more than 20 years of R&D experience, published more than 500 articles in top 10% journals, and was selected as Stanford University's Top 2% Scientists and Clarivate's Highly Cited Researchers in the academic fields of Engineering as well as Environment & Ecology. Dan's team aspires to develop green technologies for long-term decarbonisation and promote resources circularity and sustainable development. Dan also serves as the founding Editor-in-Chief of npj Materials Sustainability, Chairman of the Hong Kong Waste Management Association (HKWMA), and Chairman of Waste Management Subcommittee of the Advisory Council on the Environment (ACE) of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Samir Kumar Khanal is Professor of Environmental Engineering, Dept. of Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UHM). Prof. Khanal started his tenure-track faculty position in 2008 at UHM. Before joining UHM, he was a Post-doctoral Research Associate for 2 years and then Research Assistant Professor for 4 years in the Dept. of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University. He received BS (Hons) in Civil Engineering from Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India, and MS in Environmental Engineering from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. His PhD degree is in Environmental Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong. Prof. Khanal is globally recognized researcher in the field of anaerobic digestion, nanobubble technology, aquaponics and waste-to-resources. He has supervised/mentored 14 PhD, 21 MS, 26 UG and 13 high school students, 12 Post-docs, 15 Visiting Scholars, and 2 Junior Researchers. He has over 145 refereed publications in top-rated international journals, 17 book chapters, and 10 books including one best-selling book (Anaerobic Biotechnology for Bioenergy Production: Principles and Applications) and one textbook (Bioenergy: Principles and Applications) to his name. Prof. Khanal has also delivered over 150 plenary/keynote/invited/guest lectures nationally/internationally and is one of the most productive researchers with Scopus H-index of 50.0 (citation ~9600) and Google Scholar H-index of 59.0 (citations ~13,900). He is globally renowned in the field of anaerobic digestion, bioenergy, aquaponics and nano-bubble technology applications. As evidenced from his achievements and research impact, Prof. Khanal was awarded the highly prestigious Board of Regents' Medal for Excellence in Research by the University of Hawaii at Manoa (2018), Elsevier's Impactful Research Award (2018) and CTAHR Dean's Award for Excellence in Research by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa (2016). Prof. Khanal was also awarded Pandey Research Excellence Award, International Bioprocessing Association (2021), and Outstanding Alumni Award-2021, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2021). Prof. Khanal also was ranked world's top 2% scientists by Stanford University's Study (https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/btchxktzyw/2). He is an Editor of Bioresource Technology and serves on the Editorial Board/Advisory Board of four other journals. He has also served as a leading guest editor of several special issues related to Anaerobic Digestion and Waste-to-Resources for Bioresource Technology. He has served on various committees of other professional societies, including IWA-AD-17 world congress, International Bioprocessing Association (IBA). Prof. Khanal is a professional engineer in the state of Iowa.

Prof. Xiangzhou Yuan is a Youth Chair Professor at the School of Energy and Environment in Southeast University, Nanjing, China, and was the recipient of the National Nature Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2022) and one of World's Top 2% Scientists (2023-2025). He has published over 100 refereed journal articles including Nat. Rev. Earth Env. (IF: 73.7), 10 out of them are highlighted as Covers (i.e., Front, Back) and 5 are recognized as HCPs (1%). Dr. Yuan registered 8 patents and achieved 2 technology transfer (KR10-2197821 & KR10-1650191). He is active in serving as a Program Leader of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities Sustainable Waste Management (APRU SWM) Program, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Korean Society of Environmental and Energy Engineering (KSEEE), Council Member of Jiangsu Energy Research Society and Jiangsu Energy Industry Association, Deputy Director of Key Laboratory of Functional Polymers for Sustainability of Jiangsu, and Senior Membership of the International Association for Carbon Capture, etc. Moreover, He has been invited to deliver keynote and invited speeches for over 40 international conferences in energy, engineering, and environmental fields. He also serves as Associate Editors of Biochar (IF: 13.5) and Carbon Research (CiteScore: 15.8), Guest Editors of Carbon Energy (IF: 24.2) and others, and Editorial Board Members of Nano-Micro Letters (IF: 36.3), Carbon Neutraility (IF: 12.5), and others.

Changyoon Jeong earned his Ph.D. in environmental chemistry from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. He is currently an associate professor at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the College of Arts and Sciences, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, LA. Additionally, he is a member of the Science Advisory Council for the Louisiana Climate Initiatives Task Force (CITF), organized by the office of the Governor of Louisiana. Dr. Jeong was the organizing chair for the 4th International Symposium on Hydrothermal Carbon, held from January 21-24, 2025, at the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. His primary research areas include water quality management and soil and water conservation, focusing on improving crop production through various management practices such as the application of biochar and hydrochar. His research investigates the effects of biochar and hydrochar applications on water quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and crop production. Recently, he evaluated the use of pelletized biochar combined with fertilizer as a slow-release solution to enhance nutrient use efficiency and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Jeong has conducted several biochar projects funded by the USDA, NRCS, and the Louisiana Commodity Board. He has published numerous scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Environmental Pollution, Energies, Science of the Total Environment, and the Journal of Environmental Quality.

Dr. Michael S. Bank works as a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway. Michael also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Contaminants and Complex Systems at University of Massachusetts, Amherst in the USA and is also an Associate Editor at both Chemosphere and Environmental Pollution. His research is highly interdisciplinary and has its theoretical basis in Bayesian mathematical modeling, contaminant biology, environmental toxicology, and environmental governance. Specifically, his interests are focused on three principal themes (a) How do contaminants affect organisms, including humans, (b) How can contaminants in ecosystem compartments be modeled using isotopic niches, Bayesian statistics and information theory, and (c) How can this information be used in a scientific translation and environmental governance context. Dr. Bank's work primarily deals with real data sets that tend to be large in nature and that consider broad spatial and temporal scales. Michael serves on several expert committees and does advising on contaminants for several international environmental agencies.

Eakalak Khan is a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Department and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Water Resources, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). From 2002 to 2017, he was a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, North Dakota State University (NDSU). He also served as the Chair of Civil Engineering Department, NDSU from 2010 to 2013. Prior to NDSU, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, New York University (formerly Polytechnic University), New York from 1999 to 2002. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Environmental Engineering from Chiang Mai University, Thailand in 1990, M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from University of Hawaii in 1993, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1997. In 1998, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Environment, UCLA. Eakalak has published more than 200 refereed journal articles. His research has been well supported (~13 million U.S. dollars) by various governmental and private agencies including National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, United States Geological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Energy, New York State, District of Columbia, and Cyrus Tang Foundation. He was awarded a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation in 2005. His honors include the NDSU Odney Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2008; Researcher of the Year, College of Engineering, NDSU, 2005; Water B. Booth Endowed Distinguished Professorship, NDSU, 2017; Water Environment Federation Fellow, 2019; Distinguished Researcher Award, Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering, UNLV, 2023; Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator Medal, Water Environment Federation, 2023; and International Water Association Fellow, 2024.

Ho Won Jung, Ph.D., is Professor of Applied Bioscience at Dong-A University and a plant pathologist known for revealing how plants mount rapid, durable immune responses. His group showed that early pattern-triggered immunity rewires RNA surveillance by degrading core nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factors (*Plant Cell*, 2020; first & senior author), helped establish systemic defense “priming” at the whole-plant level (*Science*, 2009; first author), and earlier identified stress-responsive lipid transfer proteins in pepper (*Plant, Cell & Environment*, 2003; first author). Beyond immunity, his lab also investigates agro-plastics, demonstrating that plastics in soil can reshape the rhizosphere microbiome and alter plant transcriptomes in *Arabidopsis*. Since 2010 he has led a research program linking receptor signaling, proteostasis, RNA quality control, and environmental stressors to practical disease resistance in model and crop systems.He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago (2005-2010) and earned his Ph.D. (Plant Pathology), M.S., and B.S. in Agricultural Biology from Korea University.

Haiping Yang received her Ph.D Degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2005. Now, she is focused on Biomass/solid wastes thermochemical conversion for green H2 production, liquid fuel and biochar. So far she has published over 300 SCI papers, 10 book chapters and SCI citation is over 30000 with 10 papers cited in ESI and the highest citation of one SCI paper is over 6000. Now she owns National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars program (China), the Excellent Young Scholars program (China), Newton Advanced Fellowships, the Most Cited Chinese Researchers (Elsevier, 2014-2023) and Highly-cited-researchers @ Clarivate. She is associated editor of Fuel Processing Technology, and board member of Energy Conversion and Management, Fuel, Journal of the Energy Institute, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Cabon Capture Science and Technology and Green Carbon, she is also Board Directors member of Combustion Institute and Chinese Renewable Energy Society.

To be updated.

Professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Soka University. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters, Soka University, completed a master's degree in Environmental Science at the University of Tsukuba, and a doctorate in Department of Soil and Water Science at the University of Florida. Ph.D. (Soil Science). Engaged in research topics in the effects of biochar as a soil amendment and crop production. Received the Society Award from the Japan Carbonization Research Society. Engaged in research and development related to building a recycling, sustainable society in Ethiopia, including as the principal researcher for the JICA-JST International Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS-EARTH).

Jason Jieshan Qiu, Cheung-Kong Distinguished Professor of Carbon Science and Chemical Engineering, College of Chemcial Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China. His research encompasses both fundamental and applied aspects of carbon materials and science, with a focus on the methodologies of producing carbon materials for energy storage and conversion, catalysis, and environment protection. He has published 1000+ papers in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature Mater., Nature Catal., Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., Adv. Energy Mater., Energy Environ. Sci., PNAS, Nature Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Joule, Matter, Chem, etc., with citations 83000+ times and h-index of 143 (google scholar), and his work has been featured on 70 covers of international journals. He has been invited to give 200+ plenary/invited/keynote talks in conferences and at universities and research institutes. He has filed 200+ Chinese and International patents. He has been honored with 30+ prestigious awards and prizes including the First-class award for fundamental research and industrialization technologies from the Education Ministry of China and Liaoning Province. He is a highly cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics from 2018 to 2025 and by Elsevier from 2019 to 2024 in the field of chemical engineering science, Stanford University World's Top 2% Scientists 2024 and 1960-2024 Career-long Impact Scientists. Right now, he is the Associate Editor of Battery Energy (Wiley), Chemical Engineering Science (Elsevier), Carbon Innovation (Wiley), Carbon & Hydrogen (Wiley) and Biochar X (Springer).

Hirotomo Nishihara is a full professor at Tohoku University, Japan. He received his academic degrees from Kyoto University in 2005 and has spent most of his academic career at Tohoku University. His research focuses on carbon materials, encompassing their synthesis through a wide range of approaches, including biomass conversion, as well as their characterization and functional applications. In 2022, he expanded his research activities into the industrial domain by founding a startup company, 3DC. As Chief Science Officer, he is actively engaged in the industrialization of novel porous carbon materials. He also serves as an editor of Carbon (Elsevier).

Prof. dr. Frederik Ronsse is the leader of the Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass research group at the Department of Green Chemistry and Technology (Ghent University). He is responsible for managing a team with expertise in developing and optimizing biomass thermochemical conversion processes, which include fast and slow pyrolysis, gasification, torrefaction and hydrothermal liquefaction. Next to biomass thermochemical conversion, his research field also concerns process engineering with respect to multiphase flow analysis, including fluidisation, technology of granular matter and powders, study of heat and mass transfer, and modelling techniques including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with applications in thermochemical biomass conversion.

Professor Henrik I. Petersen is working with carbon storage in the Department of Geoenergy and Storage at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) in Copenhagen, Denmark. He holds a PhD and a Doctor of Science degree - the highest possible academic degree in Denmark. He is a globally acknowledged expert in organic petrology and geochemistry with 36 years of experience from academia and the petroleum industry. He has served as Vice-President for the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP) from 2011-2014. Prof. Petersen's expertise spans, among other things, deposition and preservation of organic matter, coal combustion, source rocks, CCS, and biochar. He has an extensive publication record and is a leading researcher in biochar composition and permanence using natural inertinite (fusinite) as a benchmark for organic carbon stability. Prof. Petersen is currently leading a project for the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities with the scope to develop a model for implementation of biochar in the Danish emission inventory and climate projection.

Dr. Tianqi Wang received his Bachelor’s (2012) and Master’s (2015) degrees from Nanchang University, and his Ph.D. (2018) from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, all in Environmental Engineering/Science. Following his doctoral studies, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at City University of Hong Kong and Shenzhen University. In 2022, he was appointed Assistant Professor at Macau University of Science and Technology. He is currently an Associate Professor at Shantou University. Dr. Wang has published 50 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 24. His research focuses on wastewater treatment, adsorption-enhanced (photo)catalytic conversion, adsorption and separation processes, and environmental functional materials.

Prof. Lifeng Li has been an associate professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) since 2023. She earned a Ph.D. degree from the Australian National University in 2020, a joint Master's degree from KIT, Germany, and Uppsala University, Sweden. She conducted postdoctoral research at NUS. Her research focuses on solar-driven high-temperature thermochemical processes and systems, particularly on multiphase flow, heat and mass transfer, chemical reaction kinetics, and multi-physics coupling mechanisms.

Bo Wang is an Associate Professor at the School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, and serves as the Office Director of the Belt and Road Joint Laboratory for Advanced Energy and Power Technology. His research focuses on high-efficiency solar-thermal conversion and its applications in thermochemical hydrogen production, biomass valorization, and in-situ utilization of space resources. He is a recipient of the National Young Talent Program and has served as Principal Investigator of several major grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and?Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). He has published over 30 journal papers, two book chapters, and holds two authorized national invention patents?work that continues to advance integrated solar-thermal systems for sustainable energy and space exploration.

Zhi Chen obtained his Ph.D. degree in materials chemistry and physics in 2006 from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After that, he worked as a postdoctor/research fellow at University of Milan, ENS de Cachan, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics Chinese Academy of Sciences (SICCAS), Kanagawa University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, respectively. From 2013 to the present, he has worked at the College of Materials and Chemistry, China Jiliang University. His current research interests include the design and synthesis of advanced nanostructures with applications in sustainable energy and environmental control.

Dr. Ming Zhang is a full Professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering at China Jiliang University. His research interests include soil remediation, biochar and other novel sorbents for environmental application, and microplastics. His publications, including Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Environmental Pollution, et al., have received 10,000 citations with an H-index of 38. He was selected as Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers in 2022, and World’s Top 2% Scientists (2023-2025).