PZETS-2025 Oral Presentation: Integrated Technologies Towards Sustainable Landfill Leachate Treatment and Utilization

R. Roger Ruan
Professor and Director, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering and Center for Biorefining, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55112, USA (e-mail: ruanx001@umn.edu)

R. Roger Ruan is a globally recognized scientist known for his pioneering work in catalytic microwave processing and microalgae research. His innovative contributions to utilizing solid and liquid waste have played a crucial role in advancing sustainable circular economy development. Dr. Ruan has been elected to the US National Academy of Engineering (NAE Member, Class of 2025) and the National Academy of Inventors (NAI Fellow, Class of 2023). He is also a Fellow of multiple professional organizations, including the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE, Class of 2015), the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT, Class of 2019), the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM), and Vebleo. His contributions have been recognized with numerous awards, including the International Bioprocessing Association’s Pandey Award, the CAFS Professional Achievement Award, and the Scientist of IAAM Award, among others.

Dr. Ruan's research focused on biomass and solid wastes such as plastic wastes pyrolysis and gasification for chemicals, materials, fuels, and energy production; wastewater treatment and utilization through novel anaerobic digestion, microalgae cultivation, and hydroponics; airborne and other pathogen disinfection and pollutant control; innovative catalytic non-thermal plasma, photocatalytic intensive pulse light, and NMR/MRI technologies development and applications in nitrogen fixation, food safety assurance, and food quality improvement; and food engineering and various value-added processing. Dr. Ruan's academic contributions include over 600 papers published in refereed journals, 2 books, and 30 book chapters. He holds a portfolio of 21 US patents. He is also recognized as a top-cited author, ranking 83rd nationally and 190th globally in the field of Engineering and Technology according to research.com. Notably, he holds the Number One global ranking in both microwave pyrolysis, and microalgae and wastewater treatment research fields according to Web of Science, with an h-index of 109, an i10-index of 554, and over 47,700 citations on Google Scholar. He has supervised over 100 graduate students, 150 post-doctoral fellows and other engineers and scientists, many of whom hold university faculty positions. He has been invited to give over 400 keynote lectures, invited symposium presentations, company seminars, and short courses, and has been a consultant for government agencies, and many local, national, and international companies and agencies in bioprocess engineering, food engineering, renewable energy and environment areas.