Dr. Hongxu Zhou joined the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) in 2024 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. He is committed to developing practical, engineering-driven solutions to address water quality challenges in the environment. His research focuses on water quality management, treatment of both traditional and emerging contaminants, and advancing circular economy principles through sustainable technologies.
Dr. Zhou aims to integrate water treatment material innovation (micro-scale), system design and performance optimization (meso-scale), and data-driven watershed management and sustainability assessment (macro-scale) to develop scalable solutions that improve water quality and advance circular water and wastewater infrastructure.
At ISTC, his current efforts center on the development and optimization of biochar-enabled systems for the adsorption and destruction of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). He is also leading a campus-wide project to monitor PFAS across the water systems and better understand their occurrence and potential sources.
He has contributed to multiple federally funded projects, including those supported by the U.S. Department of Defense (SERDP), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, Dr. Zhou leads several competitive research grants as Principal Investigator. He is actively seeking collaborations in sustainability and nature-based environmental management.