Prof. Dr. rer. pol. habil. Roh Pin Lee is the Professor for Decarbonization and Transformation of Industry at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg since October 2023. She comes from Singapore, is trilingual (English-German-Chinese) and has lived in Germany since 2005, where she also completed her higher academic qualifications. Her scientific background in psychology, decision sciences and international resource and environment management is complemented with knowledge of industrial technologies. The latter is acquired through her work (from 01/2015 to 09/2023) as Head of the Technology Assessment R&D division at the Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering (IEC), TU Bergakademie Freiberg – one of the leading R&D organizations in Europe for circular carbon technologies; as well as via her strong international network with science and industry especially from the energy, chemical, waste management, recycling and engineering sectors.

Working at the nexus of science, technology, politics and society, her inter- and transdisciplinary background, expertise, and international experiences enable a multidimensional approach to assess socio-technological-economical-ecological-political (i.e., STEEP) opportunities and challenges that are associated with the transformation of energy and carbon intensive sectors to inform/qualify/support socio-political dialogues and decision processes for the sustainability transformation of energy- and carbon-intensive industries.

Besides leading diverse national and international public- and industry-funded projects focused on topics associated with the decarbonization and transformation of international energy- and carbon-intensive industries towards a low carbon, resource efficient, secure, circular and sustainable production, she is also active in the following capacities:

• Member of the Brandenburg Climate Advisory Board (since 07/2024)
• Steering Committee Member for the Cluster Decarbonization in Industries in Germany (since 10/2023)
• Senior Scientific Expert (Circular Economy) for the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) Scientific Expert Panel (Since 07/2023).
• Advisory Board Member:
  - 12th International Freiberg Conference on Circular Carbon Technologies (since 2024)
  - ​​​​​​Advanced Recycling Conference (since 2023)
• Visiting Scientist/Expert with the Singapore Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (10/2021 – 03/2022).
• Guest lecturer and/or visiting researcher:
  - Singapore Management University/SMU (since 2022)
  - National University of Singapore/NUS (2022)
  - Singapore University of Technology and Design/SUTD (2022)
  - University of Surrey in Guildford, Großbritannien (between 2018 and 2023)
  - Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (since 2019)
• Scientific coordinator for the German National Network for a Circular Carbon Economy / NK2 Network (since 2019).
• Award as High-End Foreign Talent by the Shanxi Province, China (2018). 
• Head of the organization committee for the International Freiberg Conference on Circular Carbon Technologies (2015 in Inner Mongolia, China; 2016 in Cologne, Germany; 2018 in Berlin, Germany; 2022 Freiberg, Germany; 2023 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2024 in Shanghai, China)
• Reviewer activities for scientific journals (e.g., Waste Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, Energy & Environment, Energy Research & Social Science etc.).
• …

EDUCATION:

• Habilitation (Thesis: Multidimensional assessment for a carbon transition in carbon intensive industries): Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany (12/2022)
• PhD (Thesis: Analysis of important psychological determinants and factors influencing energy evaluations and preferences: Implications for managing the human dimension of energy systems): TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany (01/2015)
• MBA (International Management of Resources & Environment): TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany (07/2009)
• B.A. (Psychology): National University of Singapore, Singapore (6/2020)

SELECTED R&D PROJECTS:

• Chemical recycling for China’s transition towards a circular carbon economy / CRC3-Economy (German Federal Ministry of Education & Research/BMBF; 10/2021 – 12/2025; FKZ: 01DO21008)
• BMBF Research Group Global Change “STEEP-CarbonTrans”: Social-technological-economical-ecological-political evaluation of resource and technological alternatives for carbon resources for a raw material transition in the German industry (German Federal Ministry of Education & Research/BMBF; 09/2017 – 10/2024; FKZ: 01LN1713A)
• Recommendations for a consistent framework for the application and reporting of Life-Cycle-Analyses (LCA) & Techno-Economic Assessments (TEA) to increase transparency and comparability in systemic assessments of environmental and climate impacts of chemical recycling technologies, as well as support policy discussions and public dialogue (Funded by the European Climate Foundation & collaboration with Zero Waste Europe for dissemination activities; 04/2021 – 03/2022)
• Industry consortium with RWE Power, REMONDIS, INEOS and COVESTRO to initiate a circular carbon economy in North Rhine Westphalia/ARGE-K2 NRW (100% industry-funded; 11/2018 – 10/2021)
• Sustainability evaluation of concepts for a circular carbon economy with integration of chemical coal utilization / STOKO (Joint project with Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – Institute of Technology Assessment and System Analysis/KIT ITAS; funded by German Federal Ministry of Education & Research/BMBF;  04/2018 – 03/2019; FKZ: 03SF0559B)
• Low CO₂ coal chemistry and chemical recycling as contribution to a sustainable and low emission circular economy in Saxony and neighboring regions / STOBRA (funded by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism/SMWK via the Sächsisches Aufbaubank/SAB; 07/2017 – 01/2018)