Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Prof. Dr. Jianming Cai
Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Prof. Anthony Cheung
1. GHG Protocol Independent Standards Board Member
2. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Prof. Dr. Erfu Dai
Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Asst. Prof. Quan Gong
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Asst. Prof. Katrina Knauer
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA; National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), Golden, USA
Asst. Prof. Chaosu Li
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou),
Guangzhou, China
Prof. Dr. Xiaoyan Li
Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shenzhen, China
Prof. Dr. Mengqian Lu
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China; World Sustainable Development Institute, Otto Poon Center for Climate Resilience and Sustainability, Hong Kong, China
Dr. Michael West Mehaffy
1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China 2. Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona USA
Dr. Thandi Mgwebi
Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa
Prof. Dr. Aldo Stroebel
University of Mpumalanga, Mbombela, South Africa
Asst. Prof. Vincent Kok Sin Woon
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, China
Assoc. Prof. Chunsheng Wu
Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Mr. Mouyuan Wu
Vice President, CNPC ETRI
Prof. Dr. Weiqi Zhou
Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Plenary Speakers and Panelists
Name: Prof. Dr. Zongping Shao
Affiliation: Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Bio: The MDPI Sustainability Foundation proudly recognizes Professor Zongping Shao as a 2026 World Sustainability Award Winner for his outstanding contributions to sustainable energy research and innovation. Professor Shao is currently a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University, Australia, He received his Ph.D. from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences at 2000, and has hold research appointments in IRC-CNRS, France and California Institute of Technology, USA, Nanjing University of Technology, China, and Monash University, Australia during his research career. His research advances next-generation energy storage and conversion technologies, including advanced batteries, fuel cells, solar energy systems, and hydrogen-related technologies. Widely regarded as a global leader in energy materials, Professor Shao has significantly contributed to accelerating the transition toward cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions. He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate for multiple years, in particular in three fields of Chemistry, Materials Science and Environmental and Ecology in 2025, reflecting the international impact and influence of his work.
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Name: Prof. Dr. Arnold Tukker
Affiliation: Leiden University, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden, Netherlands; Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, Delft, Netherlands
Bio: Arnold Tukker is the Professor of Industrial Ecology and Distinguished Professor of Inter-and transdisciplinary sustainability research at Leiden University. He served until September 2022 for a maximum 8 year term as Scientific director of Leiden’s Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML, 170 staff, globally leading in Life cycle assessment, Material flow analysis and Environmental Input-Output analysis (IOA)). He retains a small position at the Dutch not for profit research organization TNO and was awarded visiting positions at Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia the Paris Institute of Advanced Study, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Arnold led a 15 million Euro effort creating the world’s most ambitious and detailed global energy/resource/economic IO database (EXIOBASE). He led a EU Marie Curie Innovative Training Network of 15 PhDs researching the circular economy (Circ€uit). Despite working until fall 2013 outside academia, he authored 6 books and over 220 refereed papers (h-value 78/32000 citations in Google scholar; h-value 59/16500 citations in Scopus). He has been engaged with work of the UN on the Green Economy Initiative, the International Resources Panel, and Sustainable Development Goals and delivered over 100 invited speeches on international conferences. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Linkoping University, Sweden in 2022. He was appointed as a member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2018, and recognised by the Web of Science group as a highly cited researcher since 2019. His work in the field of sustainable business models is among the highest cited globally.
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Name: Prof. Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar
Affiliation: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Bio: Professor Tan Yigitcanlar is an internationally recognised scholar in urban studies, sustainability, technology, and planning. He is a Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and an Adjunct Professor at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia. He directs the QUT Urban AI Hub and QUT City 4.0 Lab, and serves on the Australian Research Council College of Experts. According to the 2025 Science-wide Author Databases of Standardised Citation Indicators, he is ranked first in Australia and among the world’s top-10 scholars in urban and regional planning.
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Name: Prof. Dr. Xiaobo Yin
Affiliation: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Bio: Professor Xiaobo Yin is currently Chair Professor of Sustainability Technology and interim Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global) of The University of Hong Kong. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Nanjing University in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2008. He previously held research positions at the Stanford Photonics Research Center, the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 2013 to 2021, he served at the University of Colorado Boulder as Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor with tenure in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics, and was the Bruce S. Anderson Faculty Fellow of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Professor Yin has published more than 100 journal articles with over 30,000 citations and has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate. He is a Fellow of OSA and SPIE, and a recipient of the Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science (MRS), the Moore Inventor Fellowship from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Xplorer Prize for the Cornerstone foundation. His research spans both fundamental and applied science, with a focus on advancing cutting-edge technologies in photonics and materials science.
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Name: Mr. Yonghai Du
Affiliation: Chief Innovation Officer
Hong Kong Productivity Council, Hong Kong, China
Bio: Mr. Yonghai Du joined HKPC in 2021, overseeing a wide spectrum of business areas of innovation and research development, technical services and HOKLAS testing operations for smart city, green tech, new energy, future mobility and sustainability accelerations. By strengthening partnerships across Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, and overseas countries, Mr. Du has been leading the team to achieve both technological breakthroughs and industrial applications in the fields of autonomous driving, intelligent energy and circular economy featured by green transformation, digitalization and on-the-ground commercialisations under his leadership in relentlessly driving full value chain collaborations among government, industry, academia, research institutions and end-users. Mr. Du is appointed as the Director to the National Engineering Research Centre Hong Kong Branch: Marine Eco-Tech Innovation Centre, which was jointly established by HKPC and the National Engineering Research Centre for Advanced Technology and Equipment for Water Environment Pollution Monitoring approved by National Development and Reform Commission. Leading this national-level R&D and technology commercialisation platform, he is committed to maximising Hong Kong’s value and impacts to Chinese Mainland and the rest of the world, facilitating international collaborations and achieving integrated advancements in technological and industrial innovation in marine economy as one of the strategic emerging industries. He is also the General Manager to the Centre of Advanced Power and Autonomous Systems (APAS, the former Automotive Platforms and Application Systems R&D Centre, which has been fully integrated into HKPC since Apr 2025, www.apas.org).
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Name: Prof. Dr. Yu Hao
Affiliation: Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
Bio: Prof. Dr. Yu Hao is a full professor of Applied Economics at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), China. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Hamburg in 2012 and currently serves as director of the Department of Applied Economics and PhD supervisor. His research focuses on macroeconomics, energy economics, and environmental policy. He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2022) and an Elsevier China Highly Cited Researcher (2020–2024), and was listed among the world’s Top 2% scientists (2023). He has published over 100 academic papers in leading journals such as Energy Economics, Ecological Economics, and Energy Policy, with 196 SCI/SSCI papers as first/corresponding author, including 54 ESI highly cited papers and 24 hot papers. Prof. Hao has reviewed for journals including Energy Economics and Ecological Economics, and teaches courses such as Advanced Macroeconomics and Applied Statistics. He has received multiple research grants, including a Major Program of the National Social Science Fund of China and a Sino-German NSFC project, and was awarded the Fok Yingdong Young Scholars Award in 2017.
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Name: Dr. Abdelbagi M Ismail
Affiliation: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Nairobi, Kenya
Bio: The MDPI Sustainability Foundation proudly recognizes Dr. Abdelbagi M. Ismail as the recipient of the 2025 World Sustainability Award for his outstanding contributions to advancing climate-resilient agriculture and strengthening food and income security for smallholder farmers in vulnerable environments. Dr. Ismail is a Principal Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with more than 30 years of experience in research, development, and the deployment of solutions supporting smallholder farmers. He received a BSc (First Class) and MSc in Crop Sciences from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, and a PhD in Botany from the University of California, Riverside, USA. At IRRI, Dr. Ismail has led several regional programs on the development and delivery of climate-resilient rice varieties and technologies and coordinated extensive networks of research and development partners. He has also served in senior leadership roles including Associate Deputy Director General, Interim Deputy Director General for Research, and Head of the former Genetics and Biotechnology Division. From June 2017 to December 2025, he served as IRRI’s Regional Director for Africa and subsequently continued contributing to the institute as Senior Advisor–Consultant. His research focuses on enhancing and sustaining crop productivity in areas severely affected by drought, floods, salinity, and heat stress—constraints increasingly intensified by global climate change. His work contributed substantially to strengthening the resilience and sustainability of smallholder farming communities by reducing the impacts of worsening climatic conditions on rice-based systems and enhancing farmers’ capacity to adapt through resilient crop varieties, improved management interventions, strengthened value chains, and supportive policy environments developed in collaboration with governments. Dr. Ismail has authored or co-authored more than 290 peer-reviewed publications, books, and book chapters and has co-supervised over 50 graduate students.
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Name: Asst. Prof. Katrina Knauer
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA; National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), Golden, USA
Bio: The MDPI Sustainability Foundation proudly recognizes Dr. Katrina (Kat) Knauer as the 2026 Emerging Sustainability Leader Award (ESLA) Winner for her visionary leadership in advancing circular plastics and sustainable materials innovation. Dr. Knauer earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Florida State University and her Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has held leadership roles across industry and national research, including BASF, Novoloop Inc., and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where she serves as Chief Technology Officer of the BOTTLE™ Consortium. She is also an Assistant Adjoint Professor and RASEI Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work integrates polymer science, engineering, and systems analysis to redesign plastics for circularity. By advancing scalable recycling technologies and circular-by-design materials, she has helped shape strategies that keep plastics in continuous use and out of the environment. The 2026 ESLA recognizes her cross-sector leadership in translating advanced chemistry into practical solutions for a regenerative and economically viable circular economy.
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Name: Mr. Mouyuan Wu
Affiliation: Vice President, CNPC ETRI
Bio: Vice President of CNPC Economics & Technology Research Institute (ETRI), Principal Economist and an expert on corporate strategic research. Mr. Wu served as Director of Development Strategy Division, Director of Overseas Investment Environment Division, in ETRI. He has long been engaged and experienced in strategy, policy and other research areas, including energy security & energy transition, corporate strategy and benchmarking, oil and gas mergers and acquisitions, and transnational operations.
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Affiliation: Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Bio: The MDPI Sustainability Foundation proudly recognizes Professor Zongping Shao as a 2026 World Sustainability Award Winner for his outstanding contributions to sustainable energy research and innovation. Professor Shao is currently a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University, Australia, He received his Ph.D. from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences at 2000, and has hold research appointments in IRC-CNRS, France and California Institute of Technology, USA, Nanjing University of Technology, China, and Monash University, Australia during his research career. His research advances next-generation energy storage and conversion technologies, including advanced batteries, fuel cells, solar energy systems, and hydrogen-related technologies. Widely regarded as a global leader in energy materials, Professor Shao has significantly contributed to accelerating the transition toward cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions. He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate for multiple years, in particular in three fields of Chemistry, Materials Science and Environmental and Ecology in 2025, reflecting the international impact and influence of his work.
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Name: Prof. Dr. Arnold Tukker
Affiliation: Leiden University, Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden, Netherlands; Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, Delft, Netherlands
Bio: Arnold Tukker is the Professor of Industrial Ecology and Distinguished Professor of Inter-and transdisciplinary sustainability research at Leiden University. He served until September 2022 for a maximum 8 year term as Scientific director of Leiden’s Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML, 170 staff, globally leading in Life cycle assessment, Material flow analysis and Environmental Input-Output analysis (IOA)). He retains a small position at the Dutch not for profit research organization TNO and was awarded visiting positions at Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia the Paris Institute of Advanced Study, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Arnold led a 15 million Euro effort creating the world’s most ambitious and detailed global energy/resource/economic IO database (EXIOBASE). He led a EU Marie Curie Innovative Training Network of 15 PhDs researching the circular economy (Circ€uit). Despite working until fall 2013 outside academia, he authored 6 books and over 220 refereed papers (h-value 78/32000 citations in Google scholar; h-value 59/16500 citations in Scopus). He has been engaged with work of the UN on the Green Economy Initiative, the International Resources Panel, and Sustainable Development Goals and delivered over 100 invited speeches on international conferences. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by Linkoping University, Sweden in 2022. He was appointed as a member of the European Academy of Sciences in 2018, and recognised by the Web of Science group as a highly cited researcher since 2019. His work in the field of sustainable business models is among the highest cited globally.
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Name: Prof. Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar
Affiliation: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Bio: Professor Tan Yigitcanlar is an internationally recognised scholar in urban studies, sustainability, technology, and planning. He is a Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and an Adjunct Professor at the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Indonesia. He directs the QUT Urban AI Hub and QUT City 4.0 Lab, and serves on the Australian Research Council College of Experts. According to the 2025 Science-wide Author Databases of Standardised Citation Indicators, he is ranked first in Australia and among the world’s top-10 scholars in urban and regional planning.
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Name: Prof. Dr. Xiaobo Yin
Affiliation: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Bio: Professor Xiaobo Yin is currently Chair Professor of Sustainability Technology and interim Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global) of The University of Hong Kong. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Nanjing University in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2008. He previously held research positions at the Stanford Photonics Research Center, the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. From 2013 to 2021, he served at the University of Colorado Boulder as Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor with tenure in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics, and was the Bruce S. Anderson Faculty Fellow of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Professor Yin has published more than 100 journal articles with over 30,000 citations and has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate. He is a Fellow of OSA and SPIE, and a recipient of the Kavli Foundation Early Career Lectureship in Materials Science (MRS), the Moore Inventor Fellowship from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Xplorer Prize for the Cornerstone foundation. His research spans both fundamental and applied science, with a focus on advancing cutting-edge technologies in photonics and materials science.
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Name: Mr. Yonghai Du
Affiliation: Chief Innovation Officer
Hong Kong Productivity Council, Hong Kong, China
Bio: Mr. Yonghai Du joined HKPC in 2021, overseeing a wide spectrum of business areas of innovation and research development, technical services and HOKLAS testing operations for smart city, green tech, new energy, future mobility and sustainability accelerations. By strengthening partnerships across Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, and overseas countries, Mr. Du has been leading the team to achieve both technological breakthroughs and industrial applications in the fields of autonomous driving, intelligent energy and circular economy featured by green transformation, digitalization and on-the-ground commercialisations under his leadership in relentlessly driving full value chain collaborations among government, industry, academia, research institutions and end-users. Mr. Du is appointed as the Director to the National Engineering Research Centre Hong Kong Branch: Marine Eco-Tech Innovation Centre, which was jointly established by HKPC and the National Engineering Research Centre for Advanced Technology and Equipment for Water Environment Pollution Monitoring approved by National Development and Reform Commission. Leading this national-level R&D and technology commercialisation platform, he is committed to maximising Hong Kong’s value and impacts to Chinese Mainland and the rest of the world, facilitating international collaborations and achieving integrated advancements in technological and industrial innovation in marine economy as one of the strategic emerging industries. He is also the General Manager to the Centre of Advanced Power and Autonomous Systems (APAS, the former Automotive Platforms and Application Systems R&D Centre, which has been fully integrated into HKPC since Apr 2025, www.apas.org).
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Name: Prof. Dr. Yu Hao
Affiliation: Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
Bio: Prof. Dr. Yu Hao is a full professor of Applied Economics at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), China. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Hamburg in 2012 and currently serves as director of the Department of Applied Economics and PhD supervisor. His research focuses on macroeconomics, energy economics, and environmental policy. He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2022) and an Elsevier China Highly Cited Researcher (2020–2024), and was listed among the world’s Top 2% scientists (2023). He has published over 100 academic papers in leading journals such as Energy Economics, Ecological Economics, and Energy Policy, with 196 SCI/SSCI papers as first/corresponding author, including 54 ESI highly cited papers and 24 hot papers. Prof. Hao has reviewed for journals including Energy Economics and Ecological Economics, and teaches courses such as Advanced Macroeconomics and Applied Statistics. He has received multiple research grants, including a Major Program of the National Social Science Fund of China and a Sino-German NSFC project, and was awarded the Fok Yingdong Young Scholars Award in 2017.
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Name: Dr. Abdelbagi M Ismail
Affiliation: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Nairobi, Kenya
Bio: The MDPI Sustainability Foundation proudly recognizes Dr. Abdelbagi M. Ismail as the recipient of the 2025 World Sustainability Award for his outstanding contributions to advancing climate-resilient agriculture and strengthening food and income security for smallholder farmers in vulnerable environments. Dr. Ismail is a Principal Scientist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with more than 30 years of experience in research, development, and the deployment of solutions supporting smallholder farmers. He received a BSc (First Class) and MSc in Crop Sciences from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, and a PhD in Botany from the University of California, Riverside, USA. At IRRI, Dr. Ismail has led several regional programs on the development and delivery of climate-resilient rice varieties and technologies and coordinated extensive networks of research and development partners. He has also served in senior leadership roles including Associate Deputy Director General, Interim Deputy Director General for Research, and Head of the former Genetics and Biotechnology Division. From June 2017 to December 2025, he served as IRRI’s Regional Director for Africa and subsequently continued contributing to the institute as Senior Advisor–Consultant. His research focuses on enhancing and sustaining crop productivity in areas severely affected by drought, floods, salinity, and heat stress—constraints increasingly intensified by global climate change. His work contributed substantially to strengthening the resilience and sustainability of smallholder farming communities by reducing the impacts of worsening climatic conditions on rice-based systems and enhancing farmers’ capacity to adapt through resilient crop varieties, improved management interventions, strengthened value chains, and supportive policy environments developed in collaboration with governments. Dr. Ismail has authored or co-authored more than 290 peer-reviewed publications, books, and book chapters and has co-supervised over 50 graduate students.
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Name: Asst. Prof. Katrina Knauer
Affiliation: University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA; National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), Golden, USA
Bio: The MDPI Sustainability Foundation proudly recognizes Dr. Katrina (Kat) Knauer as the 2026 Emerging Sustainability Leader Award (ESLA) Winner for her visionary leadership in advancing circular plastics and sustainable materials innovation. Dr. Knauer earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Florida State University and her Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has held leadership roles across industry and national research, including BASF, Novoloop Inc., and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where she serves as Chief Technology Officer of the BOTTLE™ Consortium. She is also an Assistant Adjoint Professor and RASEI Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her work integrates polymer science, engineering, and systems analysis to redesign plastics for circularity. By advancing scalable recycling technologies and circular-by-design materials, she has helped shape strategies that keep plastics in continuous use and out of the environment. The 2026 ESLA recognizes her cross-sector leadership in translating advanced chemistry into practical solutions for a regenerative and economically viable circular economy.
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Name: Mr. Mouyuan Wu
Affiliation: Vice President, CNPC ETRI
Bio: Vice President of CNPC Economics & Technology Research Institute (ETRI), Principal Economist and an expert on corporate strategic research. Mr. Wu served as Director of Development Strategy Division, Director of Overseas Investment Environment Division, in ETRI. He has long been engaged and experienced in strategy, policy and other research areas, including energy security & energy transition, corporate strategy and benchmarking, oil and gas mergers and acquisitions, and transnational operations.
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