Justin Z. Lian, PhD

Environmental engineer | Prospective industrial ecology | Sustainable healthcare

I develop engineering-informed, prospective life cycle methods to guide sustainable technology design and deployment before critical choices become locked in.

My research examines how process design, scale, facility operation, location, energy systems, and time shape life cycle performance. I combine primary process and facility data with prospective and spatial LCA, economic assessment, uncertainty analysis, and bounded machine-learning applications.

Research framework From engineering evidence to responsible deployment

01 Engineering evidence Experiments, measurements, and primary process and facility data

02 Prospective assessment Life cycle models, scenarios, economics, uncertainty, and machine learning

03 Deployment decisions Design, scale, location, energy supply, infrastructure, and operation

Applied across Pharmaceuticals Medical devices Controlled facilities Hospital care pathways

Research Focus

Sustainable healthcare systems

Environmental models that connect medical technologies, hospital facilities, resource-intensive equipment, clinical workflows, procurement, travel, waste, and care services.

Sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing

Prospective LCA, life cycle costing, green chemistry, solvent and energy use, process routes, scale-up, and environmental KPIs for early-stage decisions.

Medical devices and controlled facilities

Engineering-informed assessment of medical devices, microfluidic technologies, reusable systems, cleanrooms, disinfection workflows, and other high-control environments.

Prospective industrial ecology

Foreground process models, prospective and spatial LCA, deployment-feasibility analysis, techno-economic assessment, uncertainty analysis, and decision-oriented scenarios.

Research Trajectory

My career developed through the convergence of engineering technology and systems assessment. The continuity lies in connecting technical performance with the conditions that govern responsible deployment.

Systems assessmentMSc research established a foundation in LCA through comparative assessment of decentralized waste-management systems.

Experimental engineeringPhD research developed hands-on expertise in microfluidic fabrication, functional materials, process characterization, and contaminated-water treatment.

Industry experienceTwo years in industry added an applied perspective to my academic research.

Prospective assessmentResearch at CML and Utrecht integrated engineering data with prospective LCA, techno-economic assessment, future scenarios, and regional deployment.

Healthcare systemsCurrent work at Erasmus MC extends this approach from products and facilities to hospital workflows, services, and care pathways.

Research Philosophy

Life cycle assessment has shaped not only how I conduct research, but also how I understand responsibility. It has taught me that every conclusion depends on the boundary drawn, the alternatives considered, and the burdens that may be shifted across places, time, organizations, and people.

This perspective has made me cautious about simple claims of sustainability, transparent about uncertainty, and attentive to unintended consequences. In research and collaboration, I value intellectual honesty, systems thinking, and decisions that remain responsible when viewed beyond their immediate context.

Current Work

I am a researcher at Erasmus Medical Center (Erasmus University Rotterdam), where I lead sustainability modelling for the ECO-PATH project. The work develops reusable industrial ecology models that connect hospital facilities, energy-intensive equipment, products, organizational workflows, resource use, and clinical service delivery.

Sustainable healthcare is the principal application domain of my research. Cleanrooms and other controlled facilities provide an adjacent engineering test bed. Sanitation, CCUS, renewable energy, and circular manufacturing provide comparative deployment cases.

Selected Evidence

Pharmaceutical process design Research on molnupiravir synthesis identified solvent use and process design as major determinants of environmental and economic performance.

Emerging technology scale-up Ex-ante LCA of carbon nanotube production examined energy and process choices before commercial-scale decisions become fixed.

Cleanroom futures Scenario-based assessment tested how regional conditions and future electricity and climate pathways affect controlled-facility performance.

Sol-Char deployment Random-forest screening across 76 candidate countries and ex-ante LCA compared baseline, international-transport, and local-construction scenarios.

Healthcare technologies Device, reuse, and disinfection studies connect material and process choices with procurement, facility operation, and implementation constraints.

Care pathway systems ECO-PATH links products, equipment, facilities, workflows, and services in modular environmental models for hospital decision support.

Collaboration Interests

I welcome collaborations that combine engineering or operational evidence with transparent life cycle models. Current priorities include healthcare technologies and care pathways, pharmaceutical process development, medical devices, controlled facilities, prospective LCA, regional deployment strategy, and targeted primary-data generation.