Committee Chair

Prof. Xu Weilin

Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering

Chairman of Wuhan Textile University, China

Professor Xu was a teacher of both Sichuan University and Wuhan University of Science and Engineering (the predecessor of Wuhan Textile University), the director of WUSE’s Textile Research Institute, the assistant to president of WUSE, the deputy president of WUSE and a member of its CPC Standing Committee, the deputy president of WTU and a member of its CPC Standing Committee, the director of Training Base of Hubei Provincial New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, a national key laboratory jointly established by Hubei province and Ministry of Education in February 2010. Prof. XU has been acting as the president of WTU and deputy secretary of its CPC’s standing committee since October 2020.

As a researcher of textile materials, he has also been the vice chairman of China Textile Engineering Society, the chairman of Hubei Provincial Textile Engineering Society, a senior member of American Institute of Chemical Engineer (AICHE), a senior member of the Fiber Society, U.S., a consultant expert of Hubei Provincial People’s Government, a director of technical commission under Hubei Provincial Fiber Inspection Bureau, a member of Hubei Provincial Association for Young Scientific & Technological Workers. From June 1997 to April 4 1999, he was conducting his post-doctoral research in Sichuan University. Since March 1999, he has been conducting joint research with Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU), Texas State University and California State University, etc. He has also been presiding over and participating in 30-plus projects, including national key technology R&D programs, national sci-tech supporting plans, National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), as well as the scientific research projects supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Professor Xu has been successively awarded the second prize of national technological invention, the first prize of national scientific and technological progress, and the first prize of Hubei provincial technological invention. Besides his 140 published papers both at home and abroad to be indexed by SCI, he has also been granted 5 invention patents in US and 58 in China. He led WTU Scientific Research Team in developing the fabric of national flag on China’s lubar probe Change’e-5 and the High Temperature Resistant Elastic Sealing Device for China’s Mars probe Tianwen-1.

Professor Xu has been successively awarded such honorary titles as Figure of the Year for China’s textile innovation, winner of outstanding achievement granted by The Fiber Society, winner of the 11th Youth Sci-tech Award of China, Winner of Hubei Provincial Prize for Outstanding Contribution, Winner of Sci-tech Innovation Award by Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation, winner of China Textile Academic Grand Prize, Mulberry & Ramie Scholar, Distinguished Figure with Accomplishments in Textile Industry to commemorate the 40th anniversary of China’s Reform and Opening-up. Besides the support by National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, he has been successively granted such honors as recipient of special government allowance by Hubei Provincial People’s Government, winner of Hubei Provincial May 4th Youth Medal, winner of the Top Ten Distinguished Youths in Hubei Province, winner of the May Day Labor Medal by Hubei Province, Excellent Party Member granted by the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee and recipient of special government allowance by the State Council of the PRC, National Representative of Educational Ethics, winner of National May Day Medal, and National Excellent Worker, etc.

Executive Committee Chair

Prof. Hui Tao

Dean of Fashion School, Wuhan Textile University, China

Professor Hui Tao is Dean of the School of Fashion at Wuhan Textile University, Director of the National First-Class Major in Fashion Design, and leader of the national excellent shared course "Clothing Pattern Design". With over 30 years in fashion education, her research focuses on Chinese traditional costume culture and creative fashion design, as well as fashion sustainability and design education. She teaches "Draping" and "Fashion Design" at the undergraduate level and "Chinese Traditional Costume Culture" and "Fashion Sustainability" at the postgraduate level. 

Professor Tao holds key professional roles—Executive Deputy Director of the Clothing Teaching Subcommittee of the Ministry of Education’s Textile Specialty Teaching Steering Committee; Chair of the Technical Committee of the China Fashion Association; member of the IFFTI Education Initiatives Sub-committee; Vice Director of the Smart Clothing Branch of the China Ergonomics Society; expert for the China Association of Circular Economy; and editorial board member of the "Journal of Clothing Research". In recent years she has led five national and provincial projects and ten industry projects, published over 50 academic papers, authored and translated several books (including "Gender, Apparel, Ethics" (2018) and the Chinese edition of "Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change" (2019)). Her honors include Prestigious Teacher of Hubei Province (2021), the China National Textile and Apparel Council Excellent Teacher Award (2019), and multiple teaching-achievement awards.

Academic Chair

Prof. Xungai Wang

Chair Professor, School of Fashion and Textiles

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Chair Professor of Fibre Science and Technology. Prof. Wang obtained his Doctor of Philosophy in Fibre Science and Technology and Graduate Diploma of Higher Education from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1992 and 1996 respectively. He worked as Senior Lecturer at the UNSW before he joined Deakin to start research on fibre/textile materials there in 1998. He held a Personal Chair at Deakin and was the Director of Centre for Material and Fibre Innovation from 2008 to 2010. Between 2011 and 2017, Prof Wang served as Deputy Director and then Director of the largest research institute at Deakin, the Institute for Frontier Materials, which enjoys the highest ERA ranking score of 5 in Australia.

Prof. Wang received the Fiber Society Award for Distinguished Achievement in Fiber Science and the H&M Foundation Global Change Award in 2005 and 2017 respectively. In 2019, the ARC Research Hub for Future Fibres led by Professor Wang received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Industry and Employer Partnerships.

Prof. Wang's research interests are primarily in sustainable fibres and textiles. He is Editor-in-Chief of a premier journal in the textile field, the Journal of the Textile Institute (UK).