Explore the Nano World
Education
Ph.D. Environmental Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 2011
M.S. Environmental Engineering Tongji University 2007
B.S. Environmental Engineering Tsinghua University 2004
Employment
07/2017–present Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NJIT
09/2012–06/2017 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, NJIT
01/2012–09/2012 Research engineer I, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
08/2011–01/2012 Postdoctoral scientist, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
08/2009–07/2011 Ph.D. student, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
08/2007–08/2009 Ph.D. student, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University
12/2006-06/2007 Process Engineer, Shanghai Aton Environmental LLC.
Professional Services
2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) CBET panelist
2016-2017 AWWA NJ Research & Technology Transfer Committee
2014-2016 Editorial Board member for Nature Environment and Pollution Technology Journal
2014-2015 New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute (NJWRRI) proposal reviewer
2015–present Members of Services Committee in the Environmental Chemistry Division of ACS
2013-present Director of The Environmental Engineering Teaching Laboratory
2013-present Faculty Library and Academic Computing Committee Member at NJIT
2015-present York Center Advisory Board at NJIT
2012–present Member of Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (SNO)
2011–present Member of Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP)
2008–present Member of Colloidal and Surface Science Division and Environmental Chemistry Division of ACS
2012–present Member of American Society of Microbiology (ASM)
2008–present Member of American Water Works Association (AWWA)
2016-present Affiliate Member of American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE)
Honers and Awards
2022 The CAPEES’s Environmental Educator Award
2022 2022 CAPEES Distinguished Service Award
2022 2022 AEESP Distinguished Service Award
2022 2022 Edison Patent Award from The Research & Development Council of New Jersey
2019 Faculty advisor for Founding President Best Paper Award, CAPEES
2016 ASCE New Jersey Section's Educator of the Year
2015 Hamilton Syringe Product Grant ($1,000), Hamilton Company
2014 ExCEEd 2014 Teaching Fellowship by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
2014 CIBA/ACS Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) Young Scientist Travel Award
2013 Travel Grant for Workshop on International Perspectives on Quantitative Microbial Risk, Drexel University
2013 Travel Grant for AEESP NSF Ethics Education Workshop
2012 Syringe Grant Program Award, Hamilton Company
2012 CH2M Hill/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
2011 Simon Karecki Award, SRC/SEMATECH Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing.
2011 Certificate of Merit for Presentation at ACS 241st National Meeting
2011 Certificate of Appreciation for the Peer Review Contribution, ACS
2008 Travel Grant recipient, Division of Graduate Studies (DGS), Arizona State University
2007 Outstanding Graduate Award, City of Shanghai, China
2006 Kwang-Hua Scholarship, Tongji University
2006 2nd-class Presentation Award, 1st Forum of Environmental Science, Shanghai
2006 Distinguished Assistant Award, public affair management office, Tongji University
2004 Scholarship of Scientific Achievement for Undergraduates, Tsinghua University
2003 Campus Award, 21st Challenge Cup Competition, Tsinghua University
2003 Excellence and Originality Award in 6th Business Planning Competition, Tsinghua University
Advisee Awards
2022 Jianan Gao received 2022 Heh-Won Chang, PhD Fellowship in Green Chemistry award from the ACS Green Chemistry Institute
2022 Samuel Solomon. ENVR Undergraduate Student Award
2022 Jianan Gao received the 2021 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry (ENVR) Division of the American Chemical Society.
2022 Shan Xue received the 2021 Graduate Student Award in Environmental Chemistry (ENVR) Division of the American Chemical Society.
2021 Jianan Gao received ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry (ENVR) Certificate of Merit Award, ACS
2021 Fangzhou Liu, Dr. Raymond M. Manganelli Scholarship Award, New Jersey Water Environment Association
2021 Fangzhou Liu, Modern-Day Technology Leader, The 2021 BEYA STEM Virtual Conference
2021 Fangzhou Liu, Student Poster Contest Winner in 2021 New Jersey Site Remediation Virtual Conference.
2021 NSF INTERN grant recipients: Fangzhou Liu and Jianan Gao.
2020 NSF INTERN grant recipients: Xiaonan Shi and Qingquan Ma.
2020 Wangyi Fu, China Scholarship Council Overseas Scholarship among 500 recipients globally in 2020
2019 Shan Xue, Louis Berger International Scholarship Award
2019 Fangzhou Liu, Certificate of Merit Award, The Environmental Chemistry Division of National American Chemical Society
2019 Wanyi Fu, Founding President Best Paper Award, CAPEES
2019 Leqi Lin, Second place in Graduate student poster competition (NJIT)
2019 Leqi Lin, First place in Graduate student poster competition (NJWEA)
2019 Leqi Lin, Third place in Graduate student poster competition (NJAWWA)
2019 Paula Andrea Heredia Guerrero, the New Jersey Licensed Site Remediation Professionals Association (LSRPA) Scholarship.
2018 Sarah Garcon (Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student working with Wen Zhang), NAME Green Technology Scholarship
2018 Leidy Manzueta. Techquest third place award, the 2018 Innovation Day.
2018 Wanyi Fu. John J.LaGrosa Scholarship Award, The New Jersey Water Environment Association (NJWEA)
2018 Wanyi Fu. 2018 Graduate Student Awards in Environmental Chemistry, ACS
2017 Andrea Cano received Madame Mau Outstanding Female Engineering Student Award &John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering Outstanding Senior Award
2016 Marah Magpile received the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry 2016 Undergraduate Award
2016 Mehaz Moon and Andrea Cano received the 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship
2016 Wanyi Fu received Student Research Poster Competition First Place Award from AWWA New Jersey
2016 Andrea Cano and Maira Valenci received The 2016 TechQuest First Place Award
2016 Arisha Javed received the 2016 URI Student Seed Grant (Phase I)
2016 Andrea Cano, Maira Valencia, and Mehaz Moon received the 2016 URI Student Seed Grant (Phase I)
2015 Marah Magpile received the 2015 Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship
2015 Michael Agbakpe received the Doctoral Excellence Award
2015 Marah received the 2016 URI student seed grant (Phase II)
2015 Marah, Christina, and Julissa received the 2015 URI Student Seed Grant (Phase I)
2014 Michael Agbakpe won the first place in the 2014 Dana Knox Student Research Showcase
2014 Nesseline Belceus received the 2014 Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship
2013 Christopher Kozak received the 2013 Summer Undergraduate Research Scholarship
Wen's Research Group
Wen Zhang, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE
Principal Investigator
Professor
Phone: (973) 596-5520
Fax: (973) 596-5790
Email: wen.zhang@njit.edu
Office Location: Colton Hall 211
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He has secured more than 5 million dollars of competitive research funding in the past 10 years as faculty. His research has been funded from federal agencies such as NSF, EPA, USDA, DOI, DOE and various industries. Dr. Zhang has filled or received 4 approved US patents with three undergoing commercialization (e.g., microwave-catalytic membrane technology, nanobubble technology and algal removal boat). His patented technologies are licensed by NJIT to new start-up companies (i.e., PureNanotech Inc.) in partnerships with NJIT, NJII and other commercial collaborators.
Wen is the recipient of a number of prestigious national awards in the US, including the 2011 Simon Karecki Award from the Global Research Collaboration and SEMATECH Engineering Research Center for Environmentally Benign Semiconductor Manufacturing, the 2012 CH2M Hill/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), the 2013 CIBA/ACS Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) Young Scientist Travel Award, the 2014 ExCEEd Teaching Fellows by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the 2016 ASCE New Jersey Section's Educator of the Year and the 2022 Edison Patent Award for this proposed project of a microwave-enabled reactive membrane filtration system. He also led the Chinese American Professors in Environmental Engineering (CAPEES) as the president from 2020-2022 and received the Science/US-China Environmental Education Foundation Environmental Educator Award and Award for Distinguished Service as well as the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Distinguished Service Award in 2022.
Wen Zhang is a professor of NJIT’s Newark College of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a second appointment in the Department of Chemical and Material Engineering. Wen is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) registered in the States of New Jersey and Delaware. He is an American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE). Wen received his B.S from Tsinghua University in 2004, M.S. from Tongji University in 2007, and Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011. Dr. Zhang's research integrates nanotechnology into environmental engineering to develop innovative solutions for environmental sustainability.
Dr. Zhang has a board spectra of research interests and footprints in colloidal science and interfaces, nanomaterial synthesis and characterization, catalytic processes and engineering. His expertise includes environmental behavior and interfacial processes of nanomaterials, microplastics and soft particles such as microbes and bubbles, reactive membrane filtration systems for desalination and emerging contaminant removal, microalgal removal and harvesting processing using magnetophoretic separation and reactive membrane filtration processes. His latest research also expands to agricultural applications of nanobubbles, lithium/cobalt recovery from spent lithium-ion batteries, induction-heating membrane distillation, microwave-enabled water and air purification. More details are available at Zhang’s website: www.wenresearch.com.