Professor Xiao-yan LI is currently a Chair Professor of Environmental Technology at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and a co-Director of the HKU Center of Water Policy and Technology, and he serves as an associate editor for Process Biochemistry. He received Outstanding Young Overseas Researcher Award from NSFC in 2008, First-Class Scientific Research Achievement Award in 2012 from Ministry of Education, Second-Class State Natural Science Award in 2014 from the State Council, and Second-Class Award in Environmental Science and Technology in 2019 from Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China. He has been an ISI top 1% highly cited author in environmental field since 2009 and received an award of Top Cited Author 2007-2011 from Water Research. He has published more than 280 SCI journal papers with over 14,800 citations and an H-index of 58.

Professor Li is an expert in solid-liquid separation, membrane filtration and electrochemical technology for advanced water and wastewater treatment. He has proposed new theories and developed models for particle flocculation, membrane fouling in membrane application, and aerobic granulation for biological wastewater treatment. In recent years, he has been working on innovative technologies for enhanced nutrient removal from wastewater and resource recovery from municipal sludge and food waste.