Dr. Željko Knez is a full professor of chemical engineering in the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia. He obtained his Master degree at the University of Ljubljana in 1979 and his PhD from the University of Maribor in 1984. He is a long-standing member of the UM Senate and the FKKT UM Senate. He was national coordinator of the Technical Chemistry research field, member of the ARRS Board, member of the Council for Science and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia, member of the Council for Higher Education of the Republic of Slovenia, and vice-president of the Slovenian Chemical Society. Since July 2020, Dr. Knez has been a member of the ARIS Scientific Council. He is a member of the section "Product Design and Engineering” of EFCE and of the American Oil Chemists' Society, International Society for Advancement of Supercritical Fluids and Process Net. His research in the field of sub- and supercritical fluids can be classified into three groups: production of nanostructured materials, biochemical reactions, and separation processes. He was the first person in the world to perform biochemical reactions in sub- and supercritical fluids other than CO2, and the first to publish research results in the field of membrane bioreactors (plate and tubular) operated at supercritical conditions. He has been a reviewer for more than 60 JCR journals and a member of the editorial boards of Acta Chimica Slovenica, Food Quality and Safety, etc.