Rui Shi receives Life Cycle Assessment Award for environmental sustainability work
Sept 18, 2026
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Rui Shi, assistant professor of chemical engineering, has been named the recipient of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Rising Star Award from the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA).
The award recognizes an emerging leader in life cycle assessment, which is a method of evaluating the environmental impact of an object throughout its entire existence, and life cycle thinking who demonstrates exceptional growth in contributions to the profession and increasing levels of leadership and responsibility.
Shi received the award on Sept. 16 at the ACLCA meeting in San Diego.
Shi’s research focuses on energy and the environment and systems engineering, with an emphasis on life cycle assessment, sustainable design, biofuels and bioproducts, the food-energy-water-waste nexus, advanced computational modeling and decision-making under uncertainty.
Her research has examined sustainability across a range of applications, including the life cycle impacts of plant-based ingredient production, chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste and the development of circular manufacturing systems for hydrocarbon feedstocks. Hydrocarbon feedstocks are carbon-based raw materials, often derived from petroleum or natural gas, that are used to make fuels, chemicals, plastics and other products. Shi’s research explores ways to keep these materials in circulation by recovering and reusing them, rather than relying solely on newly extracted fossil resources. She has also contributed to research involving bioenergy and the recovery of rare earth elements.
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Rui Shi, an assistant professor of chemical engineering, poses for a headshot. Credit: College of Engineering directory.
