Professor Kuo-Tsung Yu is honorary dean of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology at Tianjin University, China. He received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, US in 1947, where he continued his work as an assistant professor. He then moved to Tangshan Institute of Technology, China and founded the Chemical Engineering Department there in 1950. He joined Tianjin University in 1952, and has led distillation research there since then. His research interests include distillation process modeling, numerical simulation of chemical processes, and mass transfer theory. Prof. Yu has established a substantial publication record on basic and applied distillation research. He is the recipient of seven national rank awards and honors in science and technology and education in China. He is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has served as the editor-in-chief of the “Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering” for 15 years. He was also an invited member of the Distillation and Absorption Working Party of the EFCE (European Federation of Chemical Engineering) for 20 years.  Professor Xigang Yuan is Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology at Tianjin University (China). He is the director of the Chemical Engineering Research Center of Tianjin University and director of the Distillation Laboratory of the State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering. He received his PhD from ENSIGC-INP, Toulouse (France) in 1988. He is a member of the board of directors of Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, vice director of the Process Systems Engineering Committee of the System Engineering Society of China,  a fellow of IChemE (UK), and a member of the working party on Fluid Separations of EFCE. His research interests include distillation system simulation and optimization, mass transfer theory, and process systems engineering. He has co-authored four books and has over two hundred refereed publications.  r>