Kai Lan, an assistant professor in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at North Carolina State University, is among the 25 university-wide faculty to be named to the 2025-26 class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators.

The Goodnight Early Career Innovators program recognizes and rewards promising NC State early-career faculty whose scholarship is in STEM or STEM education. Selected faculty receive $22,000 per year over a three-year period to support their scholarship and research endeavors.

Lan, an expert in industrial ecology, obtained his Ph.D. in forest biomaterials from NC State in 2020 and completed nearly three years of postdoctoral research at Yale University before returning in 2024 to lead the Sustainability Analysis and Innovation Lab (SAIL).

SAIL focuses on improving the sustainability of industrial systems and the built environment, particularly in bioenergy and biomaterials. Using artificial intelligence, life cycle assessment (a method for measuring environmental impacts from production to disposal) and other research tools, the lab develops data-driven insights to help companies and policymakers make more sustainable decisions.

“With the support of the Goodnight Early Career Innovators program, I hope to build SAIL into a strong force for innovative and comprehensive sustainability analysis, supporting the development of a sustainable bioeconomy,” Lan said. “Being named a Goodnight Early Career Innovator is a strong encouragement as SAIL moves from its start-up phrase to building a distinctive research identity.”

Over the next three years, Lan will use the award to advance AI-enabled sustainability research and interdisciplinary collaboration, explore sustainable uses of underutilized biomass resources, train and support lab members, and increase the visibility and impact of SAIL.

At a time of intertwined challenges like environmental pollution, plastic waste, supply-chain volatility and the shift to a circular economy, SAIL’s work enables stakeholders to make informed, data-driven decisions that reduce environmental impacts, promote resource efficiency and advance a sustainable bioeconomy.

“My goal is to make sustainable development and bioeconomy more actionable and accessible so that companies, communities and policymakers can make decisions that are not only well-intentioned, but measurably better,” Lan said.

For industry, that means “providing robust assessments and tools that help manufacturers and supply chains design lower-impact products and processes,” Lan said. It also means generating evidence to inform policies for the smart and sustainable use of biomass resources.

Lan concluded, “I want our work to help accelerate a transition toward sustainable systems that are cost efficient, environmentally friendly and socially acceptable.”