Dr. Chai Liyuan-Central South University

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Dr. Chai Liyuan

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Expert in Nonferrous Metallurgy and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Chai Liyuan, born on 29 September 1966 in Wannian County, Jiangxi Province, is a leading expert in nonferrous metallurgy and environmental engineering and a member of the Communist Party of China. He received his PhD in Nonferrous Metallurgy from the Central South Institute of Technology in 1997. Dr. Chai currently serves as Dean and Professor in the School of Metallurgy and Environment at CSU and supervises doctoral candidates. He is Director of the Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Control & Treatment of Heavy Metal Pollution (CNERC-CTHMP). He also chairs the Committee on Comprehensive Utilization of Nonferrous Metallurgical Resources of the Nonferrous Metals Society of China and is the Chinese Co-Chair of the International Symposium on East Asia Resources Recycling Technology. Previously, he served as an expert for the Resource Utilization Theme under the Resources and Environmental Technologies Division of the National 863 Program. Dr. Chai was a delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. In 2019, he was elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and in August 2020 he was nominated for the Hunan Province Exemplary Educator Award.

Biography

Born on 29 September 1966 in Dangxia Village, Suqiao Township, Wannian County, Jiangxi Province, Dr. Chai Liyuan completed his secondary education at Qingyun High School.

In 1985, he sat for the national college entrance examination and earned a total score of 569. Because university applications at the time were filled out based on estimated scores, he underestimated his own performance by 50 points and subsequently enrolled in the Nonferrous Metallurgy programme at the Central South Institute of Technology (now CSU).

Dr. Chai graduated in 1989 and initially intended to enter the workforce to help support his family. However, his strong academic record earned him direct admission to postgraduate studies. Encouraged by his mentor, Professor Zhong Haiyun, he continued his academic training, specialising in the metallurgy of rare metals such as tantalum and niobium.

In 1996, Dr. Chai studied at Nagoya University as a visiting student through a China-Japan exchange programme.

He returned to the Central South Institute of Technology to complete his PhD in Nonferrous Metallurgy in 1997 and, at the invitation of his Japanese supervisor, spent nearly another year working in Japan in 1998.

Upon returning from Japan in 1999, Dr. Chai was appointed to establish a new environmental engineering discipline at CSU distinguished by its metallurgical focus.

He received the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2009.

In 2011, with authorisation from the Ministry of Science and Technology, he led the establishment of the CNERC-CTHMP at CSU and served as its founding Director.

Dr. Chai was appointed Dean of the School of Metallurgy and Environment in June 2014 and, later that year, was selected as a Leading Talent in Technological Innovation under China’s “Ten Thousand Talents Programme”.

He was elected Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering on 22 November 2019. He currently serves as a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC CSU Committee and as Vice President of CSU, completing a one-year probationary term.

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