Professors/ Collaborators

Professors

Dr. Bing Chen

B.Eng. (Jilin), M.Sc. (Peking), PhD (Regina), P.Eng.

Contact Information:

Phone: 709-864-8958
Email: bchen@mun.ca
Office: EN3017

  • Professor and Head, Department of Civil Engineering

  • Director, Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control Laboratory (NRPOP Lab)

  • Director, Network on Persistent, Emerging, and Organic PoLlution in the Environment (PEOPLE Network or NSERC PEOPLE CREATE Network))

  • Fellow of Engineering Institute of Canada

  • Fellow of Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

  • Member of Royal Society of Canada (College)

Dr. Bing Chen obtained his B.Eng. and M.Sc. from Jilin University and Peking University in China, respectively, as well as his Ph.D. from the University of Regina, Canada. He worked as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia and conducted visiting research with Environment Canada before joining Memorial University in 2006. He is currently a professor and head of the Department of Civil Engineering and director of the Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control Laboratory (NRPOP Lab). He is also the founding director of a pan-Canadian and global Network of Persistent, Emerging, and Organic PoLlution in the Environment (PEOPLE Network or NSERC PEOPLE CREATE Network).  [For more information

Expertise:

  • Environmental Engineering

  • Environmental Emergency Response

  • Marine and Coastal Environmental Protection

  • Environmental Nanotechnology and Biotechnology

  • Environmental Management and Decision Making

Research Interests:




Transport, fate, effect and removal of persistent and emerging contaminants, inland/marine oil spill response and cleanup, site remediation in harsh environments; water and wastewater treatment and resource recovery by advanced oxidation, adsorption, and filtration enhanced with nanocatalytic and microfluidic approaches; artificial intelligent (AI) aided decision making under uncertainty and emergency response management; environmental biotechnologies for pollution mitigation and green processes/products; integration of risk assessment, human factor analysis, process control and system optimization and applications for water and waste management, environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation.


Dr. Tahir Husain

B.Sc. Eng. (hons.) (Aligarh), M.Eng. (AIT Bangkok), PhD (British Columbia), P.Eng.

Contact Information:


Phone: 709-864 8781
Email: thusain@mun.ca
Office: EN3051

  • Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University

  • Leading Researcher of NRPOP Lab in drinking water treatment

After graduating from University of British Columbia in 1979, Dr. Husain joined the Research Institute of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. During his 16 years stay, he established programs in waste management, air pollution, and modelling and simulation. He also worked as principal investigator and project manager on several founded projects in areas covering waste management [For more information]

Expertise: Environmental Engineering; Water Resources

Research Interests: Water Filtration Technology



Dr. Baiyu (Helen) Zhang

B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. (Jilin), PhD (Regina), P.Eng.

Contact Information:


Phone: 709-864-3301
Email: bzhang@mun.ca
Office: EN2110B

  • Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

  • T2 Canada Research Chair (Coastal Environmental Engineering)

  • Leading Researcher of NRPOP Lab in environmental biotechnology

Dr. Zhang joined the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Memorial) as Assistant Professor in March 2010. She received an early promotion (with tenure) to Associate Professor in September 2015. She was granted the award in 2017 for serving as T2 Canadian Research Chair in Coastal Environmental Engineering. In 2019-2020, she served as Associate Dean Research (Acting) of FEAS. In September 2020, she was promoted to Professor. Dr. Zhang is Adjunct Professor at University of Regina and a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.  [For more information]

Research Interests/Highlights:



Dr. Zhang’s research mainly focuses on environmental engineering, especially associated with the development of environmental technologies for pollution control and waste management in marine and coastal environments. Her research expertise and interests lie in the areas of transport and fate of oil and emerging contaminants, marine oil spill response, coastal/inland site remediation, coastal wastewater treatment, offshore reservoir souring control, and fishery/municipal solid waste management. Dr. Zhang is the founder of the Coastal Environment Laboratory (CEL) and a key researcher of the Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution (NRPOP) Control Laboratory at Memorial University.

Since joining Memorial, Dr. Zhang has led or co-led over 30 research grants/contracts. These include research funds with a total amount of more than 9 million Canadian dollars from diverse sources including federal and provincial agencies, such as Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canada Research Chair (CRC) Program, Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and the NL Research & Development Corp. (RDC); industry sponsors, such as Petroleum Research NL (PRNL) and Suncor Energy; and other international organizations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She has (co-)authored nearly 300 publications with over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research contributions have been widely recognized in newsletters and magazines such as Canadian Reclamation, Research Matters, Context Magazine (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers), Genome Atlantic e-Bulletin, Natural Resources Magazine, and Gazette Magazine.


Dr. Kenneth Lee

B.Sc., M.Sc., PhD

  • Former DFO senior science advisor and currently DFO scientist emeritus

  • Adjunct Professor, NRPOP Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University

Kenneth Lee has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in microbiology and limnology – the study of inland waters – and is a prominent expert in the field of oil spill response technologies, both in Canada and internationally. Over the past 35 years, Dr. Lee has focused his research on oil spill clean-up, including the use of chemical dispersants to counter the environmental impact of oil spills.


Dr. Lee is currently the National Senior Science Advisor for Oil Spill Research, Preparedness, and Response for Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Since 2016, he’s been leading the Multi-Partner Research Initiative (MPRI) for oil spill response under Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan. MPRI has the mandate to promote collaborative research between government, academia and industry at the national and international levels and aims to provide expert advice on best practices to respond to oil spills in Canadian waters.


Before filling in the current position with DFO, Dr. Kenneth Lee was the Director of Oceans and Atmosphere , Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Perth, Australia. This research group provides large-scale multidisciplinary science to support the management and sustainable development of Australia’s marine and atmospheric resources. The founding Executive Director of the Centre for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research (COOGER), Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada, he received the “Prixd’ Excellence” for exemplary contributions in science (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) and the Government of Canada’s “Federal Partners in Technology Transfer -Leadership Award” for technology transfer from a federal laboratory to the private sector [For more information]


Dr. Rune Storesund

B.Sc. Eng. , M.Eng., PhD, P.E., G.E.

  • Executive Director, Centre for Catastrophic Risk Management (CCRM), University of California, Berkeley

  • President & CEO, Storesund Consulting

  • President & CEO, Storesund Construction

  • President & CEO, NextGen Mapping, Inc.

  • Adjunct Professor, NRPOP Lab, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University

Dr. Storesund is the Executive Director of University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Catastrophic Risk Management. He has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz and a Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate in Civil Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. He is also the CEO/President of Storesund Consulting; CEO/President of Storesund Construction, Inc.; and CEO/President of NextGen Mapping, Inc. Dr. Storesund has 20 years of planning, design, engineering, and construction experience in all aspects of civil, geotechnical, water resources, ecological, restoration, and sustainability projects. He has over 15 years of forensic consultation/expert witness experience on over $1 billion in litigation claims. Additionally, he serves as an Independent Technical Peer Reviewer for Battelle Corporation, having peer-reviewed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects in excess of $5 billion, including flood protection, coastal storm surge, and ecosystem restoration projects.


[Other Professors at Memorial]