Rate My Professor Mohan Qin

Mohan Qin is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering within the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Shandong University in 2010, M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Peking University in 2013, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2017. Prior to her faculty appointment, she completed postdoctoral training in Environmental Engineering at Yale University. Her research centers on developing novel approaches for resource recovery from waste streams, including bioelectrochemical systems for recovering nutrients like ammonia and phosphorus from wastewater such as dairy manure, and electrochemical processes for desalination and sustainable water treatment. Additionally, her group works on membrane-based technologies for selective ion removal and the concentration and detection of microplastics in the Great Lakes. Qin's prior doctoral research focused on resource recovery from wastewater, and her postdoctoral work examined energy consumption in electro-driven desalination of brackish water.

Qin has received numerous awards, including the 2024 International Water Association Membrane Technology Specialist Group Rising Star Award, 2024 University of Wisconsin-Madison Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships, 2023 Sustainability Fellow and Media Fellow, and the 2015 International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology Innovation Award. She serves as an associate editor for Desalination and Water Treatment and as a member of the early career editorial board for ACS ES&T Engineering. Her key publications include 'Spontaneous Oxidation of Organic Matter and Ammonium Uptake from Manure Wastewater by Redox-Active Materials' (ACS Energy Letters, 2024), 'Electrochemical ammonia recovery and co-production of chemicals from manure wastewater' (Nature Sustainability, 2024), 'Bioelectrochemically-assisted ammonia recovery from dairy manure' (Water Research, 2024), and 'Solar enhanced membrane distillation for ammonia recovery' (Journal of Membrane Science Letters, 2023). Her work has been featured in media outlets such as Aquatic Sciences Chronicle, C&EN, Science News, and Wisconsin Public Radio. Qin also advises student organizations including Engineers for a Sustainable World and the Society of Women Engineers.