Chunming Xu is a Professor at China University of Petroleum in Beijing. He is also a Deputy Advisory chair at the China State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing. He was formerly a Vice President at the China University of Petroleum and a visiting scholar at the Syncrude Research Center in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His research interests include heavy oil chemistry and processing technology, and clean fuels production. He is a co-inventor of Ionikylation technology and initiated the development work. He holds BSc and MS degrees, as well as a PhD, all in chemical engineering from the China University of Petroleum.