Roger Ruan received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked as a professor and director at the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, as well as at the Center for Biorefining. His research focuses on the use of renewable energy and environmental technologies for sustainable development and in the circular economy. He has conducted research and published findings in the areas of biomass and solid wastes such as plastic wastes pyrolysis, as well as gasification for chemical, material, fuel, and energy production and municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastewater treatment and utilization through novel anaerobic digestion, microalgae cultivation, hydroponics, airborne and other pathogen disinfection and pollutant control. He has also studied innovative catalytic non-thermal plasma, low-temperature microwave and pulse microwave, photocatalytic intensive pulse light, and NMR/MRI technology research, development and applications in nitrogen fixation, food safety assurance, food quality improvement, and food engineering and various types of value-added processing.