Faculty
NTRODUCTION
Chongxuan Liu is a Chair Professor at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. Liu holds a Ph.D degree in Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. He was a chief scientist at US Department of Energy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining the SUSTech. His research area is in the environmental geochemistry and biogeochemistry, primarily focusing on the kinetics of contaminant transformation and reactive transport; multiscale science and scaling of geochemical and biogeochemical reactions; and treatment technologies of heavy metals and radionuclides in contaminated water and soils. His current research is in river critical zone science, focusing on the kinetics of rock weathering and rate scaling and watershed-scale hydro-biogeochemistry of nutrients and contaminants in groundwater and surface water interaction zones, and in the area of environmental technologies including the treatment technologies of metals and radionuclides in contaminated surface and groundwater, and soils. He is the PI or Co-PI for over 20 projects, and authored and co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles. He was named the fellow of Geological Society of America (GSA) in 2011.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
1998 Ph.D., Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
1994 M.S., Low-Temperature Aqueous Geochemistry, University of Alabama
1984 M.E., Hydrogeochemistry, Zhejiang University, China
1982 B.S., Geology, Zhejiang University, China
RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
• 2016-present, Chair Professor, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology
• 2006-present, Scientist (Level V), Geochemistry group, Fundamental and Computational Science Directorate, PNNL, Richland, Washington, Research on fundamental mechanisms governing the dynamics of biotransformation of natural organic carbon and nitrate, and geochemical and biogeochemical transformation of metals and radionuclide contaminants (U, Tc, Cr, As) in soils and sediments; establishment of genome-informed, microbial community based kinetic models describing microbial and biogeochemical processes in groundwater/soil/sediment systems; and development of unified theories and multi-scale models for describing water flow and biogeochemical reactive transport of solutes and contaminants in heterogeneous soils, sediments, and ecological systems.
• 2002-2006, Senior Research Scientist (Level IV), Geochemistry, Fundamental and Computational Science Directorate, PNNL, Richland, Washington, Research on the kinetics of biogeochemical redox transformation of metals and radionuclides in subsurface sediments, modeling of coupled biogeochemical reactions with diffusive mass transfer.
• 2000-2002, Senior Research Scientist (Level III), Environmental Dynamics and Simulations, Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, PNNL, Richland, Washington, Research on microbial reduction of iron minerals focusing on development of biokinetics for describing microbial growth and respiration; development of multi-site equilibrium and kinetic models of radionuclides sorption (Cs and Sr).
• 1998-2000, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Environmental Dynamics and Simulations, Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory, PNNL, Richland, Washington, Research on modeling microbial reduction of iron minerals and uncertainty analysis of biokinetics model.
SYNERGISTIC ACTIVITIES
• Organizer of the International Workshop on Hydro-Biogeochemical Processes: Mechanisms, Coupling, and Impact, Wuhan, China. October 27-29, 2015
• Elected Fellow of Geological Society of America (GSA), 2011
• Editor-in-Chief and editorial board member for 4 journals in Geochemistry and Biotechnology.
• Proposal reviewer for funding agencies: Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and American Chemical Society American Petroleum Institute.
• Peer-reviewer for over 50 professional journals in Earth and Environmental sciences
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (h-index of 36 from 130 publications)
[1] Yan S. Y Liu, C Liu*, L Shi, J Shang, H Shan, J Zachara, J Fredrickson, D Kennedy, C Resch, C Thompson, and S Fansler, 2016, Nitrate bioreduction in redox-variable low permeability sediments, Science of Total Environment, 539, 185-195
[2] Xie X, P Fu, C Liu, J Li, Y Zhu, C Su, T Ma, and Y Wang, 2016, In situ remediation by aquifer iron coating: Field trial in the Datong basin, China, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 302, 19-26
[3] Song H-S and C Liu, 2016, Modeling biological denitrification process: the Cybernetic approach, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2015, 54, pp 10221–10227
[4] Liu Y, C Liu*, RK Kukkadapu, JP McKinley, JM Zachara, AE Plymale, MD Miller, TV, CT Resch, 2015, 99Tc(VII) Migration, Reduction, and Redox Rate Scaling in Naturally Reduced Sediments, Environ. Sci. Technol., 49, 13403-13412
[5] Liu C*, Y. Liu, S Kerisit, JM Zachara, 2015, Pore-scale process coupling and effective surface reaction rate, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 80, 191-216
[6] Xie, X., Wang, Y., Fu P., Liu, C., Li, J., Liu, Y., Wang, Z., Duan, M.; Mapoma, H., 2015, In situ treatment of arsenic contaminated groundwater by aquifer iron coating: Experimental Study, Science of the Total Environment, 527, 38-46.
[7] Munusamy P, C Wang, MH Engelhard, DR Baer, JN Smith, C Liu, VK Kodali, BD Thrall, S Chen, AE Porter, MP Ryan and, 2015, Comparison of 20nm silver nanoparticles synthesized with and without a gold core: structure, dissolution in cell culture media, and biological impact on macrophages, Biointerphases, 10, 031003-1 to 031003-6
[8] Liu Y, C Liu*, C Zhang, X Yang, and JM Zachara, 2015, Pore- and continuum-scale study of the effect of subgrid transport heterogeneity on redox reaction rates, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 163, 140-155
[9] Fang Y, C. Liu, and L. R. Leung, 2015, Accelerating the spin-up of the coupled carbon and nitrogen cycle model in CLM4, Geosci. Model Dev. 8, 781-789
[10] Yang X, C Liu*, R Hinkle, H-Y Li, V Bailey, and B Bond-Lamberty, 2015, Simulations of ecosystem hydrological processes using a unified multi-scale model, Ecological modeling, 296:93-101. doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.10.032
[11] Fang Y, C Liu, M Huang, H Li, R Leung, 2014, Steady state estimation of soil organic carbon using satellite-derived canopy leaf area index, J. Adv Modeling Earth Systems, 6, 1049-1064.
[12] Xie X, Y Wang, A Ellis, C Liu, M Duan, and J Li. 2014. "Impact of sedimentary provenance and weathering on arsenic distribution in aquifers of the Datong basin, China: Constraints from elemental geochemistry." Journal of Hydrology 519(2014):3541-3549.
[13] Wang Z, JM Zachara, J Shang, C Jeon, J Liu, and C Liu, 2014, Investigation of U(VI) adsorption in quartz-chlorite mineral mixtures, Environ. Sci. Technol., 48, 7766-7773, DOI: 10.1021/es500537g
[14] Kerisit SN and C Liu, 2014, Molecular dynamics simulations of uranyl and uranyl carbonate adsorption at alumino-silicate surfaces, Environ. Sci. Technol., 48, 3899-3907.
[15] Wang D, C Su, C Liu, B Gao, Y Wang, X Hao, D Zhou, and 2014, Transport of fluorescently labeled hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in saturated granular media at environmentally relevant concentrations of surfactants, Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects, 457, 58-66
[16] Ma R, C Zheng, C Liu, J Greskowiak, H Prommer, and J M Zachara, 2014, Assessment of Controlling Processes for Field-Scale Uranium Reactive Transport under Highly Transient Flow Conditions, Water Resour. Res., 50, doi:10.1002/2013WR013835
[17] Yang X, C Liu*, J Shang, Y Fang, and V Bailey, 2014, A Unified Multi-Scale Model for Pore-Scale Flow Simulations in Soils, Soil Soc. Sci. Am. J., 78, 108-118, DOI10.2136/sssaj2013.05.0190
[18] Liu C*, J Shang, H Shan, JM Zachara, 2014, Effect of subgrid heterogeneity on scaling geochemical and biogeochemical reaction rates, a case study of U(VI) desorption, Environ. Sci. Technol., 48, 1745-1752. DOI10.2136/sssaj2013.05.0190.
[19] Shang J, C Liu*, Z Wang, and J Zachara, 2014, Long-term kinetics of U(VI) desorption from Sediments, Water Resour. Res., doi:10.1002/2013WR013949..
[20] Weng H-X, X-W Ma, F-X Fu, J-J Zhang, Z Liu, L-X Tian, C Liu*, 2014, Transformation of heavy metal speciation during sludge drying: mechanistic insights, J. Hazard. Mater. 265, 96-103.
[21] Zhang X, Liu C*, Hu B X, Zhang G, 2014, Uncertainty analysis of multi-rate kinetics of Uranyl desorption from sediment, J. Contam. Hydrol., 156, 1-15
[22] Ma, R, C Liu, J Greskowiak, H Prommer, C Zheng and JM Zachara. 2014. Influence of Calcite on Uranium(VI) Reactive Transport in the Groundwater-River Mixing Zone. J. Contam. Hydrol., 156, 27-37