Fengting Li received his B.E. in Polymer Materials from Beijing Institute of Technology in 1986, his M.E. degree in Applied Chemistry from Shandong University of Technology (now Shandong University) in 1989, and his Ph.D. degree in Polymer Science and Engineering from Nanjing University in 1997. Prof. Li is currently a professor at College of Environmental Science and Engineering of Tongji University. He is also the director of UN Habitat-Tongji-Institute of Climate Change and Environment for Africa, the director of the Key Laboratory of Urban Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change in Shanghai (CMACC), China Meteorology Administration. He was elected as a Fellow of African Academy of Sciences in 2020 and a Fellow of the Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China in 2023.
Prof. Li leads the team that focuses on the study of chemical molecular structure design to materials and is motivated by the goal of resolving engineering issues. They combine product design with the establishment of technical standards, and aim to promote the development and application of new materials in the environmental field, providing the market with effective green solutions. He broadened this field to hyperbranched polymer nano adsorbent functionalized materials, and has achieved outstanding outcomes in the deep treatment of drinking water, the separation and recovery of heavy metals and gases, industrial recycled water treatment, and the deep treatment and reuse of industrial wastewater and clean production of new energy battery materials. Since 2000, he has presided over more than 70 projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Shanghai Municipality, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). Prof. Li has also published more than 400 papers domestically and internationally, and has been granted more than 115 invention patents in China and the United States. His achievements have been adopted by more than 60 companies nationwide to produce water treatment chemicals and new energy materials. Furthermore, he has developed a new method for producing lithium carbonate and water treatment agents by using aluminum ash and red mud from the aluminum industry, which has been applied in numerous projects. He has been awarded the United Nations Special Contribution Award for South-South Cooperation once, the first prize for technological invention in Shanghai twice, and the second prize for national teaching achievements twice.