Topic: Fighting Emerging Contaminants for Sustainable Environments – From Genes to Application

Speaker: Dr. He Jianzhong, National University of Singapore

Date: June 13-15，at 10:00 - 11:30 AM

Venue: J3-305 (June 13), J3-101(June 14 and 15), Shahe Campus

Biography of the Speaker:

Dr. He Jianzhong is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She received her Ph.D. degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003 from Professor Frank Löffler’s lab. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Lisa Alvarez-Cohen’s lab at the University of California Berkeley for two years before joining the NUS as an assistant professor in 2005. Dr. He’s research focuses on discovering novel microorganisms to transform and detoxify environmental contaminants, enhancing biodegradation by optimizing the growth of functional microbes, biomass to bioenergy/biochemicals, nutrients removal from wastewater, and applying nucleic acid-based approach in laboratory cultures and in situ.

During her tenure at NUS, Dr. He has generated more than 70 peer-reviewed publications while securing significant amount of external funding from diverse funding agencies (>16 million in the past 10 years). So far, her publications have been cited for more than 2100 times (Web of Science) and an H-Index of 20. She holds several patents and collaborates widely with industrial, governmental and scientific partners. She is also the editorial board member of the Journal of Scientific Reports, the ISME Journal, ‍‍‍‍‍‍and Applied and Environmental Microbiology.‍

Abstract:

Urban watersheds and groundwater are important environments serving as sources of drinking water, often creating a great potential for migration of any aquatic contamination and resulting in wide distribution of contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants, pharmaceutical and personal care products and their corresponding products (e.g., degradation intermediates and antibiotic resistant genes).

In my lecture series, I will first talk about a sustainable city like Singapore on water and waste management (Topic 1). Then I will discuss on the history of wastewater management till nowadays with a focus on emerging contaminants bioremediation in our environment (Topics 2 & 3). I will also spend some time covering a set of comprehensive approaches on identification and quantification of microbial cells with an emphasis on modern molecular and genetics tools. Lastly, I will talk about our recent development on converting biomass to biofuels and value-added biochemicals.

Topics:

1. June 13 (Wednesday): Water and waste managemen in sustainable city Singapore.

2. June 14 (Thursday): Emerging contaminants bioremediation in the environment (I).

3. June 15 (Friday): Emerging contaminants bioremediation in the environment (II).

School of Space and Environment