Prof Jianxin Li started his academic career in 2002 as a research associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder, USA after obtaining a PhD in Polymer Science from the University of Stellenbosch. In the years that followed, he has held various visiting professor positions in the Ohio State University, USA,Kobe University, Japan and Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science, China. He is a Distinguished Professor at UNISA’s Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability, South Africa and a Tianjin Distinguished Professor, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Separation Membranes, Tiangong University, Tianjin, China. He has supervised more than one hundred postgraduates and earns a global recognition for his research prowess on nanomaterials, membrane separation, water purification and bio-pharmaceuticals. One of the major achievements from his research group is being the first to conceptualize electrocatalysis coupled membrane separation technique to create a self-cleaning electrocatalytic membrane reactor. Meanwhile, he focuses on the industrialization development of conductive carbon membrane for industrial water treatment and resource utilization and polymeric membranes and filters for bacterial and virus removal in bio-pharmaceuticals. His research has led to 40 patents being granted in various regions across the world. Prof Li’s research on green catalysis and separation membranes has been published in over 350 journal articles and 6 book chapters. His work has been cited over 17,000 times resulting in a Google Scholar H-index=68. Prof Li is an NSF B1-rated researcher in South Africa and the Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (MASSAf) (2024) and the Fellow of African Academy of Science (FAAS) (2025).
Prof. Jianxin Li
Institute for Nanotechnology and Water Sustainability
College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa Science Campus
Florida 1710, Johannesburg, South Africa. Tel:+86 13920680300
Email: tjianxl@unisa.ac.za; jxli@tiangong.edu.cn
