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, where he also serves as Interim Graduate Studies Chair and leads the Tulane Environmental Biogeochemistry Modeling Group. He holds dual Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Geochemistry from Peking University (2010) and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Washington (2013), as well as a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Peking University (2006). Before joining Tulane in 2024, Dr. Zhang was Professor in the School of Atmospheric Sciences at Nanjing University (2017-2024), Environmental Scientist at Gradient Associates (2015-2017), and Postdoctoral Associate in the Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group at Harvard University (2013-2015).

Dr. Zhang's research focuses on the global biogeochemical cycling of persistent contaminants such as mercury, microplastics, PFAS, antibiotics, radionuclides, and other emerging pollutants, and their interactions with Earth systems including the atmosphere, land, ocean, rivers, and ecosystems. He develops advanced Earth System Models that integrate mechanistic understanding with observational data to establish comprehensive pollutant budgets, quantify fluxes and transformation pathways across environmental compartments, assess impacts of anthropogenic emissions and climate change, and project future contamination risks to ecosystems and human health. As Editor-in-Chief of npj Emerging Contaminants, a Nature Partner Journal, he advances research on emerging pollutants and their environmental and health impacts. His highly cited publications, exceeding 10,000 citations, appear in leading journals including Nature Communications, Science Advances, PNAS, and One Earth. Key works include 'Human perturbations to mercury in global rivers' (Science Advances, 2025), 'Potential decoupling of CO2 and Hg uptake process by global vegetation' (Nature Communications, 2024), 'Calcite carbonate sinks low-density plastic debris in open oceans' (Nature Communications, 2024), 'Plastic Waste Discharge to the Global Ocean Constrained by Seawater Observations' (Nature Communications, 2023), and 'Global Health Effects of Future Atmospheric Mercury Emissions' (Nature Communications, 2021). His contributions inform global strategies for pollution mitigation and sustainability.