Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
Education
● Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Missouri (Columbia, MO)
● M.S., Environmental Engineering (Minor: Biological Sciences), University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE)
● M.S., Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University (Beijing, China)
● B.E., Environmental Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology (Xi'an, China)
Professional Credentials
Certification of Engineer in Training (E.I.T.) from Michigan (2012)
Teaching Specialties
● Introduction to Environmental Engineering
● Biochemical Processes for Water and Wastewater Treatment
● Hydraulics and Hydrology
● Probability and Statistics
● Engineering Economics
● Introduction to Health Physics
● Mechanics of Materials Laboratory
Research Interests
Environmental Biotechnology and Molecular Microbiology
● Monitoring and control of opportunistic pathogens in municipal engineered water systems
● Monitoring and control of harmful algal blooms in freshwater bodies
● The next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics to understand complex environmental systems
Water, Wastewater, and Municipal Sludge Treatment
● Membrane bioreactors for municipal wastewater treatment
● Peracetic acid for water and wastewater disinfection
● Hydrothermal treatment to enhance anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge
Environmental Nanotechnology
● Fate and toxicology of engineered nanoparticles (e.g., silver nanoparticles) in the environment
● Using engineered nanoparticles to control the growth of undesirable bacteria
Biography
Dr. Zhang Chiqian is the new tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering Program of the College of Engineering & Computer Science at Arkansas State University (starting from August 2023). Prior to joining Arkansas State University, he worked as an Assistant Professor at Southern University and A&M College (Baton Rouge, LA) from August 2022 to August 2023. He also worked in the industry (Pegasus Technical Services, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio) as a microbiologist from 2019 to 2021. Dr. Zhang Chiqian completed his postdoctoral training at Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, Georgia) in June 2019. He received a Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri (Columbia, MO; 2018) and an M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering (minor: Biological Sciences) from the University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE; 2011). His research focuses on safe drinking water supply, opportunistic pathogens in drinking water, drinking water disinfection by-products, biological wastewater treatment, surface water quality monitoring and restoration, harmful cyanobacterial blooms, anaerobic digestion of municipal sludge, environmental microbiology, and environmental biotechnology. His study has resulted in 30 high-quality publications in top-tier environmental engineering journals such as Water Research and Environmental Science and Technology.
