Professor Zhang Tong from Nankai University is awarded the 2023 James J. Morgan Award Early Career Award
On December 7th, the 2023 James J. Morgan Award Early Career Award was jointly selected by the American Chemical Society and Environmental Science & Technology, a leading international journal in the field of environment is official announced. Dr. ZHANG Tong, a professor in the College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University is honored to be one of the winners.
The James J. Morgan Young Scientist Award is named after Professor James J. Morgan ,the first Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science & Technology, recognizes those early career researchers who are standing on our shoulders. These are the researchers who are seeing the farthest horizons and leading the fields in new directions through creative, new ideas consistent with Morgan’s early contributions to environmental chemistry.
Professor ZHANG Tong has been a professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Nankai University since 2016. She completed her Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University, USA, in 2012, followed by a postdoctoral research position at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA, completed in 2015. Dr. Zhang’s research interests cover biogeochemistry, nanogeoscience, and environmental remediation. Specifically, her research focuses on the interfacial processes that govern the fate, transport, and transformation of trace metals and mineral nanoparticles in the natural environment, elucidating key processes controlling mineral surface reactivity with biological targets. Her pioneering research on geochemical and microbiological constraints on the methylation of mercury by microorganisms has illustrated the surface mechanisms by which nanocrystalline mercury sulfides are made available to microorganisms.
Professor Zhang’s team also revealed how natural organic matter interacts with metal oxide nanoparticles depending on the exposed crystal facets of the particles. Their work also demonstrated how mineral structures on nanoparticle interfaces are important for human–nanoparticle interactions and the protein coronas that develop after humans are exposed to nanoparticles. Professor Zhang is widely regarded as a rising star in the field of environmental science and engineering with an unusual capacity to conduct multidisciplinary research.
Reported by FU Kun, WU Junhui
Translated by LI Mengchu
