James J. Spivey received his BS in 1972 and MS from NC State University in 1974. His PhD from LSU was awarded in 1980, where he joined Albemarle Corp. He then joined RTI as Director of Process Development, serving for 20 years. In 1980, he joined the Chemical Engineering faculty. Presently, he serves as James Shivers Professor at LSU. He has served as Editors-in-Chief of Catalysis Today (Elsevier) and Royal Society of Chemistry Specialist Periodical Reports (Cambridge, UK). He also served as Director of Center for Atomic-level Catalyst Design, a DOE-sponsored Research Center focusing on synthesis, characterization, and computational analysis of catalytic reactions. All told, the Center consisted of $16 million and 10 universities, both in the US and Europe. Prof. Spivey focuses on the catalytic conversion of C–H–O compounds into higher-value products, including oxygenates, fuels, and intermediates. Starting with simple reactants such as methane and CO₂, more complex reactants and products can be produced by selectively activating specific bonds in the reactant.

Yi-Fan Han received his PhD degree in chemical engineering from East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) in 1997. He worked as a post doc or research associate at Fudan University (1997–1999), ULM university (1999–2003) and Texas A&M University (2003–2005). He joined the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences in Singapore in 2005 as a senior research fellow. Then, he worked as a full professor at ECUST since 2010. Meanwhile, he was appointed as Dean of the School of Chemical Engineering at Zhengzhou University in 2015. He has more than 160 peer reviewed papers published in top journals including JACS, Angew. Chem., ACS Catal., J. Catal., and AlChE J., and 19 patents authorized. His research interests focus on (1) the investigation of the structure–activity relationship of industrial catalysts by operando spectroscopy for low-carbon resource utilization (catalytic conversion of syngas and carbon dioxide), (2) waste treatment (advanced treatment of industrial organic wastewater), and (3) industrial catalyst research and development for clean energy.

Dushyant Shekhawat is serving as a team supervisor for the Reaction Engineering team at National Energy Technology (U.S. Department of Energy), Morgantown, USA. His research interests include heterogeneous catalysis, reaction engineering, and microwave-assisted catalysis to produce value-added fuels and chemicals from natural gas, higher hydrocarbon fuels, waste plastics, and CO₂. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal publications, conference proceedings, and reports, seven book chapters, six books, and 16 patents (disclosed or full). He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in West Virginia and also serves on the NCEES’s PE Chemical Engineering Examination Development committee.