Professor Yuan Zhiguo received his PhD in Control Engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Beihang University) in 1992 and transitioned to urban water management in 1994 as a postdoctoral research fellow at Ghent University, Belgium. He later joined The University of Queensland, Australia, in 1998, where he held leadership roles, including Director of the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (2015–2022). Since May 2023, he has been a Chair Professor at City University of Hong Kong.

Prof Yuan is renowned for his work in urban water management and environmental biotechnology. He was a founding member of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (2012–2021) in Australia and established three successful companies—SeweX, Cloevis, and Lodomat—that generated substantial savings for the Australian water industry.

Prof Yuan has published over 600 papers in top-tier journals, amassing more than 64,000 citations. His achievements have been recognized by awards such as the 2015 ATSE Clunies Ross Award and the 2014 IWA Global Project Innovation Award. Named one of Engineers Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers (2015), he is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), and an IWA Distinguished Fellow. In 2019, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Water Research X.