Research interests

Environmental chemistry, Energy engineering, Environmental engineering, Sustainability engineering

Research profile

Professor John Zhou obtained his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Manchester, UK in 1992. He has lectured in several UK universities, and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) since 2014. At UTS, he has been the Head of School for Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Founding Director of Centre for Green Technology.

Initially trained in water and wastewater treatment, Prof Zhou has become a leader in conducting multidisciplinary research. His research covers environmental geochemistry, environmental analytical chemistry, advanced wastewater treatment, soil decontamination, vehicle emissions control, and resource recovery from waste. Prof Zhou has published 380 articles in leading journals such as Nature Sustainability, Science Advances, Environmental Science and Technology, Analytical Chemistry, Water Research, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and Journal of Hazardous Materials. He is listed in the World’s Top 2% Scientists, Clarivate Highly-Cited Researchers, and Top 0.05% Highly Ranked Scholars, yearly and life time (ScholarGPS).

Prof Zhou has secured many research grants in his career, including multiple highly competitive European Union research grants. In addition, he has obtained funding from the Royal Society (UK), the Leverhulme Trust, UK Defra, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research Programme of China, University Grants Committee (Hong Kong), and industry partners.

Prof Zhou is a college/panel member of several funding agencies, including the UK Natural Environment Research Council, and the European Union Framework Programmes and Horizon 2020. He is an Associate Editor of npj Clean Water, and editorial member of several other journals including the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts.