Rate My Professor Yanxu Zhang

Yanxu Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Tulane University School of Science and Engineering. He also serves as Interim Graduate Studies Chair and leads the Tulane Environmental Biogeochemistry Modeling Group. Zhang earned a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Peking University in 2006, a Ph.D. in Environmental Geochemistry from Peking University in 2010, and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington in 2013. His professional career includes a Postdoctoral Associateship in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group at Harvard University from 2013 to 2017, an Environmental Scientist position at Gradient Associates from 2015 to 2017, and Professor in the School of Atmospheric Sciences at Nanjing University from 2017 to 2024, prior to joining Tulane in 2024.

Dr. Zhang's research centers on the global biogeochemical cycling of contaminants and their interactions with Earth systems, encompassing mercury, microplastics, PFAS, antibiotics, radionuclides, and other emerging pollutants. His work examines how these pollutants move through and transform within the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, influenced by human activities and climate change. The Tulane Environmental Biogeochemistry Modeling Group combines mechanistic knowledge and observational data to develop numerical models for environmental compartments and interfaces, characterizing pollutant budgets, fluxes, transport pathways, and impacts on environmental quality and human health. Key publications include Sun et al. (2024), 'Calcite carbonate sinks low-density plastic debris in open oceans,' Nature Communications; Yuan et al. (2024), 'Potential decoupling of CO2 and Hg uptake process by global vegetation in the 21st century,' Nature Communications; Fu et al. (2023), 'Modeling atmospheric microplastic cycle by GEOS-Chem: An optimized estimation by a global dataset suggests likely 50 times lower ocean emissions,' One Earth; Zhang et al. (2023), 'Plastic Waste Discharge to the Global Ocean Constrained by Seawater Observations,' Nature Communications; Wu and Zhang (2023), 'Toward a Global Model of Methylmercury Biomagnification in Marine Food Webs: Trophic Dynamics and Implications for Human Exposure,' Environmental Science & Technology; Zhang et al. (2023), 'An updated global mercury budget from a coupled atmosphere-land-ocean model: 40% more re-emissions buffer the effect of primary emission reductions,' One Earth; Wang et al. (2023), 'Climate-Driven Changes of Global Marine Mercury Cycles in 2100,' PNAS; and Zhang et al. (2021), 'Global Health Effects of Future Atmospheric Mercury Emissions,' Nature Communications. As Editor-in-Chief of npj Emerging Contaminants, a Nature Partner Journal, Zhang promotes research on emerging pollutants and their environmental and health impacts. His interdisciplinary efforts contribute to strategies for pollution mitigation and environmental sustainability.