Invited Speakers

Assoc. Prof. Zhen Fang
Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Advanced Material and Green Manufacture, China

Dr. Fang was trained as a doctoral organic chemist at University of Kentucky (May, 2019) with broadened knowledge in material science, analytical chemistry and electrochemistry, and joined Michigan State University/ Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) as a postdoc until Feb. 2022. Dr. Fang is a current associate research fellow at Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Advanced Material and Green Manufacture, primarily focusing on biomass valorization and design of novel multifunctional biobased composite materials.
In the past 5 years, Dr. Fang has published over 40 academic papers, i.e., Adv. Sci., Small, Nano Lett., Chem. Eng. J., and Green Chem., including ~30 publications as the first/corresponding author (total IF>250, including 11 publications with IF>10) and 1 US patent on the research of preparation of biobased composite materials, molecular-level disassembly and valorization of lignocellulos. Dr. Fang was invited to present academic reports twice at the American ACS National Conference and won the “Research Challenge Trust Fund (RCTF, 2017) ” scholarship and “Dissertation Year Award” (2018). Now he is also a Section Editor of Materials Technology Reports.  

Assoc. Prof. Zhongsheng Guo
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (ISWC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) & Ministry of Water Resource (MWR)
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (ISWC), Northwest A & F University , China

Dr. Guo is an Associate Professor (Research) at the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation (ISWC), CAS&MWR, Northweste A & F University, China. He received his doctorate in Northwest A&F University, China. He conducted collaborative research with Oklahoma State University, USA as a Senior Visiting Scholar at Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003.
Dr. Guo's research interests include sustainable use of natural resources, soil and water conservation, high-quality sustainable development of forests and grasslands, and high-quality agricultural production. He has been appointed twice (2015 & 2020) to the Expert Advisory Committee for the “Three-North Forest Shelterbelt” program. He published more than 80 papers in important journals in China and abroad. Among which, a paper titled "Soil water carrying capacity of vegetation and soil desiccation in artificial forestry and grassland in semiarid regions of the Loess Plateau” published in Acta Ecologica Sinica has been cited more than 330 times. His research results have also won three national second-class awards and more than 10 provincial and ministerial awards. Dr. Guo's research results are of significance to the conservation of natural resources, sustainable development and the improvement of agricultural production quality.