Yifeng Zhang associate professor

Technical University of Denmark, Denmark

Dr. Yifeng Zhang is currently working as an associate professor at the Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He obtained his Ph.D. degree from DTU in 2012. His major research interests are microbial electrochemistry and biotechnology to support the 2nd, 6th, 7th, 12th, and 13th UN Sustainable Development Goals through sustainable water treatment, resource recovery, CO2 capture and utilization, biosynthesis, and environmental bioremediation & monitoring. His research has been highly innovative and contributed considerably to improving the fundamental understanding of microbial electrochemistry and developing cutting-edge, efficient, and economic-affordable technical solutions in the Water-Food-Energy-Climate nexus for sustainable development and green transition. This way the wastewaters and greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2), which otherwise are treated as pollutants undergoing energy and carbon-intensive treatment processes, are recovered and upcycled in a form of valuable bioproducts such as chemicals, biofuels, proteins, and energy. His research has been well documented in over 90 SCI publications (19 as first author and 63 as the corresponding author), 2 patents, 3 book chapters, and ≥30 conference contributions. Most of the SCI publications are in top journals in the field such as Energy & Environmental Science, Trends in Biotechnology, One Earth, Environmental Science & Technology, and Water Research. According to Google Scholar, his works have been cited over 3600 times and with an H index of 34. Among these, 9 papers have each citation over 100 times. He has been listed as World's Top 2% Scientists 2020. Since 2012, He has been successfully attracting over 25 M DKK international and national research funding (e.g., Independent Research Fund Denmark, Novo Nordisk Foundation). Especially, in the year 2018, he received Carlsberg Foundation Distinguished Fellowships (4.5M DKK) which is given to talented young scientists to establish their research group. In the same year, he was shortlisted and interviewed for the Young Investigator Program funded by Villum Foundation. In 2020, he was selected as top 50 among global competitions for The Elsevier Foundation-ISC3 Green & Sustainable Chemistry Challenge Award.