Environment

Ecosystem & Human Health

The Environment Group integrates expertise in aquatic and atmospheric science, biogeochemistry, environmental chemistry, and environmental health to quantify how pollutants, climate variability, and human activities interact to reshape ecosystems and risks to communities.

As the SEE's longest-standing and most dynamic research group, we pair a strong record of publication in leading environmental journals with a sustained commitment to translation—advancing monitoring, modeling, and treatment technologies into solutions adopted by industry and other stakeholders.

Scope

Our research spans aquatic to atmospheric systems, linking contaminant sources and transformations to ecosystem and human health outcomes, with particular emphasis on pollutant transport, carbon and nitrogen cycling, air quality, and scalable treatment and resource-recovery technologies.

We track pollutants from source to impact—and design scalable processes to remove them, recover value, and build resilient aquatic and atmospheric systems. Our work integrates field and laboratory observations with modeling and data-driven analysis to place present-day environmental change in mechanistic context and to inform future trajectories, spanning local, regional, and global scales. Central themes include contaminant pathways from sources to exposure and effects (metals, nanomaterials, and emerging chemicals), coupled aquatic–atmospheric processes shaping water and air quality, and scalable treatment and resource-recovery technologies that reduce risk while advancing sustainability.

Water & Waste

Prof. Zhiguo YUAN (Senior Lead)

Integrated urban water management, Net-zero urban water management, Smart urban water systems, Sustainable carbon bioeconomy, Wastewater treatment and resource recovery, Urban water infrastructure protection

Prof. Jason LAM (Junior Lead)

Electrocatalysis, Lignin and (Hemi)cellulose Valorization, Biorefinery, Green Chemistry, Electrometallurgical Treatment of E-Waste, Electrochemical Advanced Oxidation Processes (EAOPs) Treatment of Wastewater

Prof. Xi CHEN

Separation Technologies, Lithium-ion Battery Recycling, Water and Wastewater Treatment, Desalination, Membrane Transport Theory, Thermodynamics, Life-cycle Assessment

Prof. Henry HE

Emerging organic contaminants, Aquatic toxicology, Molecular toxicology, Environmental chemistry

Prof. Patrick LEE

Environmental biotechnology and engineering, bioenergy, applied environmental microbiology, molecular microbial ecology, environmental genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, single-cell microbiology

Prof. Xuneng TONG

Hydro-Environmental Modelling; Water Quality Modelling and Management; Environmental Hydraulics; Fate and Transport of Contaminants; Emerging Microbial and Chemical Contaminants; Land-sea interaction ecosystems

Prof. Wen-Xiong WANG

Metal Ecotoxicology, Nanotoxicology, Estuary Pollution

Air

Prof. Theodora NAH

Atmospheric Chemistry, Organic Aerosols, Bioaerosols, Harmful Algal Blooms, Air Quality and Climate, Indoor and Outdoor Environments, Health Effects

Prof. Jin SHANG

Adsorptive gas separation, Adsorption-enhanced (photo)catalytic conversion, Porous materials, CO2 capture, Natural gas/biogas/landfill gas purification, Low temperature NOx removal, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) removal, NH3 removal, Paraffin/olefin separation, Gas storage, Gas sensing