Hou Li'an, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE, Division of Environment and Light Textile Engineering), is a renowned environmental engineering expert and doctoral supervisor. He concurrently serves as the Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Urban Environmental Pollution Control. He holds advisory roles including Consultant for the Urban Water Affairs Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development’s Science and Technology Commission and Vice Chairman of the China Future Research Institute. He is recognized as a national strategic scientist in the field of ecological environment.

 

Academician Hou Li'an has long been dedicated to research on solid waste safe disposal and resource utilization, landfill leachate treatment, hazardous waste risk prevention and control, and the development of "zero-waste cities". His work focuses on overcoming critical technological bottlenecks in municipal solid waste treatment, emergency disposal of medical waste, and emerging contaminant remediation. He has pioneered the development of advanced treatment and reuse systems for landfill leachate and innocuous disposal processes for high-risk solid waste, significantly enhancing the efficiency and safety of urban solid waste management.

 

As a core expert, he has played a substantive role in the strategic planning for China’s pilot "zero-waste city" initiatives. He proposed the systematic technical pathway of "source reduction – classified recycling – resource utilization – secure landfill", driving the optimization of national solid waste management policies.

 

He has led over 20 major national research projects, including the National High-Tech R&D Program (863 Program) and the National Sci-Tech Support Program. His achievements have earned him numerous accolades, including 5 National Science and Technology Progress Awards (three Second-Class Prizes) and over ten Military Science and Technology Progress Awards. He is also a recipient of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress. He has authored 10 academic monographs, and his research outcomes have been widely applied in urban environmental governance projects.