On December 2nd, we were honored to invite Professor Xu Ming from the School of Environment and Sustainable Development of the University of Michigan to give us an academic report titled "Carbon Neutrality and Life Cycle Thinking". Zhang Bin, Associate professor of School of Management and Economics of Beijing Institute of Technology introduced Xu Ming and presided over the report.

At the meeting, Mr. Xu Ming first introduced the development history, discipline characteristics, scientific research, academic team and other aspects of the University of Michigan, as well as Resources, Conservation & Recycling. At the same time, based on the general situation of global carbon neutrality, Mr. Xu introduced the life cycle thought and its significance to carbon neutrality, pointing out that the life cycle thought can identify the links in the product life cycle that cause great environmental impact, evaluate the real environmental impact of products, and guide consumers to make environmentally friendly purchasing decisions. Finally, Mr. Xu pointed out that life cycle analysis would face great data challenges. Based on this challenge, he introduced the link prediction method, which is based on the idea of big data and predicts missing data according to existing data, which can meet the needs of life cycle analysis for data integrity.

After the presentation, the participating teachers and students had an interactive discussion with Mr. Xu Ming on relevant academic issues. The report was well received by the participating teachers and students.

Introduction to Teacher Xu Ming:

Ming Xu received his Bachelor's and master's degrees in Environmental Science and engineering from Tsinghua University in 2003 and 2006 respectively, and his doctorate degree in civil and environmental engineering from Arizona State University in 2009. He is currently a professor in the School of Environment and Sustainability and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests include environmental systems engineering and industrial ecology. In 2016, he was awarded the National Science Foundation's CAREER Award for young teachers. The American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE's Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the highest award for mid-career scientists. Editor-in-chief of Resources, Conservation & Recycling (2020 impact factor 10.204, Zone 1, Chinese Academy of Sciences). Awarded the International Society for Industrial Ecology Young Scientist Award (Laudise Award) in 2015 for outstanding contributions to the field of Industrial Ecology, Elected Chairman of the Gordon Research Conference on Industrial Ecology (2024) and President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (2023-2024).