Introducing our Early Career Editorial Board
Published 23 February, 2025
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the journal, we are delighted to announce the recent appointment of inaugural Early Career Editorial Board.
As part of our commitment to supporting early career researchers, the Early Career Board will be an integral component of our overall editorial board. Working closely with us, they will help identify the needs and motivations of early career researchers, enabling us to develop strategies that better support them. With their input, we aim to ensure the journal remains a valuable resource that supports researchers at every stage of their career. Here, we introduce our first Early Career Editorial Board Members:
Rajneesh Kumar
Rajneesh Kumar holds a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati and currently serves as a National Postdoctoral Fellow at IIT (BHU) Varanasi. His academic journey began with a bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, followed by a master's in Environmental Engineering from the National Institute of Foundry & Forge Technology. Dr. Kumar’s research is centered on wastewater treatment, with notable contributions such as utilizing plant-based waste as biosorbents to remove chromium from water.
Xiaotu Liu
Xiaotu Liu is an associate professor at Jinan University in China. Her research interests include 1) the development and application of screening and analytical methods for emerging contaminants based on mass spectrometry; and 2) human exposure and health risk assessment of emerging contaminants. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in international journals. She has presided over several scientific research projects, including the Outstanding Youth Fund of Guangdong Province and the National Natural Science Foundation of China General Program. She is currently serving as a member of the Environment and Reproductive Health Committee of the Chinese Eugenics Society, and a member of the Biomarkers Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Mutagens.
Elvis Okoffo
Elvis Okoffo holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from the University for Development Studies, Ghana, and a Master of Philosophy degree in Environmental Science from the University of Ghana. He completed his PhD at QAEHS in 2021, focusing on developing quantitative analytical methods to measure (mass-based concentration) and provide an understanding of plastic residues in Australian wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) biosolids, and subsequent releases into the Australian environment. Elvis’s current research focuses on developing novel sampling approaches and analytical techniques for monitoring plastic residues in environmental samples.
Wenfeng Wang
Wenfeng Wang is a full professor in Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. He got a PhD degree in pollution ecology from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in China. After that, he continued his research as a post-doctor in Michigan State University (2019-2021) in USA and then Korea University (2021-2022) in South Korea. His current research interests mainly focus on the environmental behavior and ecological impacts of emerging contaminants (e.g., microplastics and perfluoroalkyl substances) and element biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. He has published more than thirty peer-reviewed articles, some of which are listed as the Top 1% ESI Highly Cited Papers.
Lili Yang
Lili Yang obtained the Ph.D. degree in Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2018. Dr. Lili Yang is currently holding an associate professor position in RCEES, CAS (http://sourcedb.rcees.cas.cn/zw/zjrck/201809/t20180911_5076101.html). Dr. Lili Yang currently chairing two projects funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and has published 93 papers on peer-reviewed journals, which have collectively been cited over 2,000 times.
Xia Yu
Xia Yu holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering and a Ph.D. in Environmental Science (East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), China). She now works in the State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process in ECUST. Her research interests are occurrence, behavior, and removal of emerging contaminants, such as PPCPs, PFASs, and microplastics in various emission sources and environment, especially in municipal solid waste landfills.
Ian Zammit
Dr. Ian Zammit's research interests include human biomonitoring and exposure to plastic-associated small molecules (e.g., bisphenols, phthalate, etc), and wastewater-based epidemiology. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at the University of Queensland, Australia – as part of the Minderoo Centre Plastics and Human Health. Prior to this, Ian was a Post-Doctoral Researcher at The Catalan Institute for Water Research in Spain, where he worked on wastewater-based epidemiology at both intra- and inter- city scales. Ian earned his Ph.D. from the University of Salerno, Italy in December 2019. The doctoral project focused on antibiotic resistance mitigation in wastewater reuse and was as part of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN. He also holds a Master of Science in Environmental Sciences from Stockholm University and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Chemistry and Biology from the University of Malta
Shizhen Zhao
Shizhen Zhao is Associate Professor at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she leads the Air-Omics research group. She obtained her bachelor's degree from Jinan University (2011) and her PhD from Lancaster University, UK (2016), with full support from the China Scholarship Council and Unilever PLC. Her research focuses on the source, behavior, and fate of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and emerging contaminants in the regional environment. She has led over 10 national and provincial research projects, including the Guangdong Outstanding Youth Fund, and was selected as a member of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2022. She has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers on chemical pollutants.