Prof. LIN Sze Ki Carol (連思琪)

Editorial Board

• Editor in Green and Sustainable Science and Engineering Section, Chemical Engineering Journal (Elsevier)
• Senior Editor, Sustainable Environment
• Editorial Board member of BMC Chemical Engineering (Springer Nature)
• Editorial Board member of Open Agriculture
• Scientific Advisory Board member of Waste and Biomass Valorization
• Advisory Board member of Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy 
• Associate Editor of Biochemical Engineering Journal 

Dr. Carol Lin received her Bachelor’s degree in Chemical and Materials Engineering with 1st class honours from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She was awarded with PhD in 2008 in the research field of Biochemical Engineering at the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at the University of Manchester, England. After one year as a postdoctoral researcher in the research group of Professor Wim Soetaert at the Centre of Expertise – Industrial Biotechnology and Biocatalysis at the Ghent University in Belgium, she returned to Hong Kong and joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a Visiting Assistant Professor.  In 2011, she began her academic career in School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong, and she was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017.

Dr. Lin’s research group focuses on technological advancement and development of circular waste-based biorefinery for sustainable production of chemicals, materials and fuels, that contributes to reduction of environmental burden of waste disposal and enhancement of resource efficiency. Focusing on these topics, she has secured more than HK$24 million research funding from various sources including the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC) in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Research Grant Council (RGC).  She has been involved in over 20 research projects as Principal Investigator, which mainly focus on development of integrated biorefinery strategies includes valorization of agricultural residues, food, beverage, plastic and textile wastes.

Dr. Lin has published more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles including well-recognised journals such as Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, Chemical Society Review, Energy and Environmental Science, Journal of Hazardous Materials, and Chemical Engineering Journal. She was recognised as the World’s top 2% scientists in the fields of ‘Biotechnology’ and ‘Environmental Science’ by Stanford University in 2020-2022.  Dr. Lin has received regular invitations to share her research findings in Keynote and Plenary speeches at major international conferences, including Nature Forum on Plastics and Sustainability 2020 and Nature Conference ‘Waste Management and Valorisation for a Sustainable Future’ 2021.  She has been involved as an active member of various national and international commissions and committees such as the Scientific Board of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3), Germany. She regularly serves as an external assessor for national and international funding institutions including National Research Foundation (NRF) in Singapore, Dutch Research Council (NWO), European Science Foundation (ESF).

There is a growing demand to establish biotechnology-based processes for material, chemical and fuel production which can decrease our dependency on dwindling oil reserves and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These novel bioprocesses are incorporated into biorefineries, which are integral units converting different renewable-derived feedstocks into a range of useful products as diverse as those from petroleum using environmentally friendly technologies. A number of agricultural-based biorefinery processes have been developed and realised at commercial scale since the past decade. At the same time there are growing concerns over organic waste generation and insufficient resource supply due to the ever-increasing global population and the cradle-to-grave system of material flows in the linear economy.

Therefore, the research in our team aimed at valorising organic waste materials through bioconversion processes to recover their inherent nutrients for transformation into value-added products. Waste-based biorefinery not only provides a means for waste treatment, but also promotes the development of a circular economy by valorising wastes into high-value products. As part of this goal, the recent projects conducted in our group mainly focused on the development of integrated biorefinery strategies to valorise food and textile wastes. Due to the different characteristics of the waste materials, the bio-processes were specifically designed and demonstrated in laboratory- and pilot-scales, accompanied with techno-economic assessment for evaluation of technical and economic feasibility. 

Prizes and Awards