Wayne Seames is a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Chemical at the University of North Dakota (UND), USA. His areas of expertise are in the invention and development of renewable energy/chemicals technologies, in mitigating the environmental impacts of coal utilization, and general process engineering and economic analysis. He is the Director of the Sustainable Energy Research Initiative and Supporting Education Program (SUNRISE), a multi-university, multi-disciplinary research and outreach center. He is a named inventor on eight UND U.S. patents and has received over $24 million in research funding during his 21 year academic career. He was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in April, 2017. He was also a 2014/15 Fulbright Distinguished Chair and a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds, UK.