Chemistry

Faculty and Staff

Prof. Huichun (Judy) Zhang - Personal Page

Education | Experience | Courses | Research | Publications | Professional Services |
| Awards | Patent | Research Group | Conference Publications |

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Education:

• Ph.D.   Environmental Engineering , Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia      2004
• M.S.    Environmental Chemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China                     1997
• B.S.    Environmental Chemistry , Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China                     1994

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Professional Experience:

• 08/2008 – present:  Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois

• 08/2005 – 07/2008:  National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate, National Exposure Research Laboratory, U. S. EPA, Athens, GA (Research Advisor: Dr. Eric J. Weber)

• 08/2004 – 08/2005: Postdoctoral Associate, Graduate Field of Environmental Toxicology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (Research Advisor: Prof. Ann T. Lemley)

• 07/2000 – 07/2004: Graduate Research Assistant, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia (Research Advisor: Dr. Ching-Hua Huang)

• 07/1997 – 06/2000: Environmental Engineer, Green Water Treatment Company, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

• 09/1994 – 06/1997: Graduate Research Assistant, Dept. of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China (Research Advisors: Professors. Jing-long Chen and Quanxing Zhang)

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Courses:

• Special Topics in Environmental Chemistry (Environmental Organic Chemistry) Chem 479 /  ENSC595
• Environmental Sciences Seminar II ENSC 506
• Analysis of Environmental Contaminants ENSC 528

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Research:

Dr. Zhang’s research projects focus on the following areas:

• Transformation and fate of emerging contaminants in natural and engineered environments,

• Interfacial reactions of contaminants with natural minerals and novel nanomaterials,

• Reaction mechanisms and kinetic modeling,

• Reduction-oxidation processes in the development of environmental fate models, and

• Resources reuse and advanced treatment technology of high concentration industrial wastewaters. 

Our primary goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the fate of contaminants in a variety of environments to evaluate the risks associated with these chemicals and their impacts on human health and the environment.  We also want to advance the science and application of ‘green’ technology, which focuses on recovery of valuable ingredients from wastewater before they are subject to treatment technologies.

Fate and Transformation of Emerging Contaminants in Reducing Environments

         The rapid expansion of the chemical industry has resulted in the potential for release to the environment of approximately 80,000 xenobiotic chemicals resulting in exposure to both humans and ecological receptors.  Many of the emerging contaminants have estimated environmental persistence of many years, as is often found with xenobiotics.  To provide more accurate environmental fate data for risk analysis, existing environmental fate models need to be updated concerning reductive transformation pathways.  The majority of research in the literature is focused on the fate of nitroaromatic, halogenated and azo compounds in model reducing systems; however, little information is available regarding the reduction of compounds containing other functional groups such as sulfoxide, N-nitrosoamine, and quinone functional groups and reductive dealkylation.  This poses major uncertainty in trying to incorporate reductive transformation into environmental fate models.  For this project, we are studying the reductive transformation of organic contaminants containing all potentially reducible functional groups to gain a systematic understanding of how each functional group reacts and how the reactivity of each functional group is affected by the substituents.  The results of this research will significantly enhance the database for environmental fate modeling, as well as provide first-hand information regarding predicting the reductive transformation of contaminants in the environment. 

Effects of Nanoparticles on the Redox Transformation of Organic Contaminants

          With the increasing number of commercial applications for nanoparticles such as nanosized metal oxides and carbon nanotubes, there is concern about the risk of these materials on human health and the environment.  The interaction of these nanoparticles with emerging contaminants must be determined to assess this risk; in particular, how do these nanoparticles affect the fate and transformation of emerging contaminants?  Such information would enable toxicologists and environmental scientists to assess the toxicology and the environmental impact of these materials.  For this project, we plan to study the effects of nanosized metal oxides on the reduction-oxidation of organic contaminants at metal-oxide interface; and the following questions must be addressed:  How does the presence of these materials affect the reaction kinetics and mechanisms of organic contaminants in close contact with them?  How will their reactivity differ from their bulk state?  The growing number of studies on nanomaterials in the literature will form an important knowledge basis for this research. 

Resources Reuse and Advance Treatment of Industrial Wastewater

          The demand for advanced wastewater treatment continues to increase because of the growing market for chemical products and higher standards for treated water.  For example, in addition to the list of primary drinking water contaminants, EPA announced the draft Drinking Water Contaminant Candidate List 3 (CCL 3) in February 2008 in an effort to expand and strengthen the underlying CCL listing process to be used for future CCLs.  For this project, we will study treatment and resources reuse of high concentration organic pollutant-containing wastewaters using advanced oxidation and resin adsorption technologies.  Our focus will be on (i) recycling active ingredients from pesticide- or pharmaceutical- wastewaters using a variety of resins and (ii) treating the remaining wastewaters by advanced treatment technologies.  These “green” technologies will enable industry to recycle valuable products and/or intermediates before treating the residues as harmful pollutants in an economically efficient manner. 

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Publications: 

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Professional Services:

A. Conference Symposium Organization

• Poster Session Judge, Gordon Research Conference, Environmental Science: Water, poster session, Plymouth, NY,  June 22-27, 2008.
• Symposium Session Chair, Gordon Research Conference, Environmental Science: Water, postersession, Plymouth, NY,  June 25-30, 2006.

B. Technical Journal Reviewer

• Environmental Science and Technology
• Chemosphere
• Journal of Environmental Monitoring
• Separation and Purification Technology

C.  Professional Organization Affiliation

• American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP)
• SigmaXi

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Awards:

• National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2005 - 2008
• CEE Best PhD Thesis Award, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech, 2005
• Scientific and Technology Progress Award on "Application of Resin Adsorption Technique in Chlorobenzene Production”, First prize, Presented by China Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Association, China, December 20, 2004.  Award number: 2004JBR-0008-1-11
• ACS Certificate of Merit, the ACS National Meeting, American Chemical Society, Division of Environmental Chemistry, 2002
• Scientific and Technological Progress award on "Synthesis and Application of Hypercrosslinked Polystyrene Adsorption Resin", Second prize, Presented by China Universities Science and Technology Award Committee, Ministry of Education, P.R. China, 2001.  Award number: 2000-218.
• Guanghua Fellowship, First prize, Nanjing University, China, 1995

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Patent:

• Zhang, Q.; Chen, J.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, H.; et al. “Treatment and Resource Reuse of Wastewater in Production of Chlorobenzene”.  Publication Number: ZL 01 1 37308.3; Publication Date: March 30, 2005.

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Research Group:

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Conference Publication:

Proceeding Papers:

Extended Abstracts:

Conference Presentations (Without Proceedings):

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