On April 24th, 2026, Professor Bingcai Pan from the School of the Environment at Nanjing University delivered an academic report titled "Challenges and Strategies for Water Pollution Control Chemistry in Supporting Technological Innovation" to the faculty and students of our college. The report was held in Conference Room E202 of the School of the Environment and was hosted by Dean He Huan. More than 50 faculty and students attended the session.
Bingcai Pan, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Green Recycling (Nanjing University), Member of the Academic Committee of the Ministry of Education's Science and Technology Commission, Distinguished Professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program, recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and Leading Talent of the National "Ten Thousand Talents Program" for Scientific and Technological Innovation. His research focuses on new materials and technologies for advanced water treatment and their underlying principles. He has led projects including the National Key R&D Program on Nanofrontiers and Key Projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published 423 research papers with over 36,000 citations and an H-index of 102, and has been listed among Elsevier's Most Cited Chinese Researchers for 12 consecutive years. He has received prestigious awards including the Second Prize of the State Technological Invention Award, the First Prize of the Ministry of Education Technological Invention Award, the First Prize of Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Award (Basic Research Category), the Youth Award of the Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Award, and the Jiangsu Provincial Patent Inventor Award.
Professor Bingcai Pan first reviewed the current state of water pollution control research in China, noting that while certain popular research directions have witnessed a surge in publications, most studies remain confined to the laboratory stage and fail to support practical technological innovation and industrial application. Addressing the developmental bottlenecks of the environmental discipline, Professor Pan conducted an in-depth analysis of the varying cycles required for different technologies to advance from basic research to engineering application, and pointed out that certain once-popular research directions are gradually declining due to their lack of practical value. Regarding technological innovation, Professor Bingcai Pan emphasized that environmental functional materials must account for scalability potential, adaptability to real and complex water environments, and economic rationality. He also advocated the concept of "Field Science" to promote the close integration of basic research with industrial needs.
Following the report, faculty and students from our college engaged in lively exchanges and in-depth discussions with Professor Bingcai Pan on topics including the application prospects of individual research directions, alignment with actual industrial needs, key points for grant applications, career positioning for young faculty members, and specific challenges encountered in their research. The lecture featured cutting-edge content closely tied to practical realities, providing important inspiration for faculty and students to deepen their understanding of water pollution control chemistry and clarify their future research orientation.