The 2021 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Awards were recently announced. Peng Yongzhen, a professor from the Faculty of Environment and Life, Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) was honored with the award in the category of Ecological and Environmental Technology. Since its establishment in Hong Kong in 1994, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation has enjoyed a growing international presence. Of the fewer than 70 laureates to date who have received this award, Prof. Peng Yongzhen is the first from BJUT.

Prof. Peng has long been engaged in the theoretical research and engineering practice of biological nitrogen removal for wastewater, and the automatic and intelligent control of activated sludge wastewater treatment systems, and he has made significant contributions linked to addressing technical bottlenecks and engineering problems in this field. He boasts 283 state-authorized invention patents as the primary inventor, 107 of which have been commercialized. He has gained four second prizes in the National Science and Technology Award and the State Technological Invention Award, and eight first prizes at the level of provincial science and technology awards.

In recent years, BJUT's research on biological nitrogen removal technology for wastewater has become in international academic circles, and the University has established itself as one of the leading institutions in this area. Since 2009, the number of published papers and citations in this field, with Prof. Peng as the first or corresponding author, has ranked first both in China and globally. With the goal of achieving new engineering applications, Prof. Peng Yongzhen was the first to propose, in China and globally, the ideas and new technology associated with "partial ANAMMOX of mainstream urban wastewater", and he has also been the first to achieve successful short-range denitrification coupled ANAMMOX. He has also published the first ten papers in SCI-indexed journals in this domain. According to theResearch Fronts 2020, co-published by Clarivate Analytics and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, ANAMMOX and its application in wastewater treatment is the most important current topic in the field of environmental science. China has currently taken a lead in publications in this area. Beijing University of Technology (China) and Technische Universiteit Delft (the Netherlands) are the top two leading universities in this field globally.

To support BJUT's talent cultivation, Prof. Peng has donated his individual prize of HK $200,000 to the University's Education Foundationto promote the training of innovation-driven individuals in the field of environmental protection.