Liyuan CHAI is currently a professor and dean at the School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, as well as the Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Heavy Metal Pollution Prevention and Control. He has long been dedicated to research in the field of non-ferrous metallurgy and environmental engineering. Professor CHAI has invented various technologies for pollution control and resource recovery in non-ferrous metallurgy, including clean metallurgy of arsenic-bearing polymetallic materials, resourceful treatment of metallurgical waste acid, and purification and reuse of heavy metal-containing wastewater.

 His research interests encompass clean production and pollution reduction of heavy metals, treatment and application of "three wastes" (wastewater, waste gas, and solid waste) containing heavy metals, and remediation of heavily polluted sites due to heavy metal contamination. The implementation of his research findings has been widely promoted in over 200 projects across large and medium-sized enterprises involved in heavy metal processing in China, significantly contributing to the industrial transformation, upgrading, and green development of China's non-ferrous metals industry.