Match tier Confirmed
Presence Current · Arkansas
Last published 2026
Sources OpenAlex · ORCID
Refreshed 2026-08-20

Chiqian Zhang

Affiliation confirmed via AI analysis of OpenAlex, ORCID, and web sources.

Federal Grant PI High Impact

Tenture-track assistant professor

Also affiliated: University of Nebraska–Lincoln (2013); Georgia Institute of Technology (2019–2021); Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College (2022–2025); Guiyang Medical University (2016); Xiamen University (2024); Chinese Academy of Sciences (2024); Marion Technical College (2021); Institute of Urban Environment (2024); CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion (2024); Hangzhou Dianzi University (2018); University of Missouri (2012–2022)

Faculty Researcher

21 h-index 66 pubs 2,162 cited

  • Sewage
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid
  • Wastewater
  • Bioreactors
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • Water Purification
  • Water Microbiology
  • Metal Nanoparticles
  • Anaerobiosis
  • Animals
  • Disinfectants
  • Diatoms
  • Bacteria
  • Chlorine
  • Nitrogen

Biography and Research Information

OverviewAI-generated summary

Chiqian Zhang's research focuses on environmental engineering and sustainability, with a particular emphasis on water quality, public health, and waste management. Her work investigates the presence and control of opportunistic pathogens in municipal drinking water distribution systems, exploring strategies to optimize disinfectant residual dosage to minimize health risks associated with both pathogens and disinfection by-products. Zhang also studies the treatment of municipal sewage and sludge, examining methods such as hydrothermal carbonization and anaerobic digestion to improve resource recovery and manage volatile sulfur compounds. Her research extends to assessing water quality in natural systems, including the use of cyanobacteria and phytoplankton as indicators of trophic conditions and the detection of cyanotoxin-encoding genes in harmful algal blooms. She has received federal funding from the NSF for research on alkaline thermal pretreatment of sewage sludge to improve anaerobic digestion.

Zhang's publications also address the bacterial community diversity in tap water systems, comparing hot and cold water sources. Her work in environmental nanotechnology involves studying the transformation and mobility of metals in sewage sludge. She has a demonstrated record of scholarly output, with 59 publications and over 2,100 citations, contributing to a high-impact researcher designation. Her research network includes collaborations with other academics, such as Kainat Rahnuma at Arkansas State University.

Metrics

  • h-index: 21
  • Publications: 66
  • Citations: 2,162

Selected Publications

  • Chemical and Biological Cascade Responses Triggered by Nitrate-Driven In Situ Iron Corrosion: Mechanism of Simultaneous Nitrogen and Phosphorus Removal from Piggery Tailwater in Iron–Carbon Biofilter (2026)
    Water DOI OpenAlex
  • Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction to assess phytoplankton and indicate eutrophication in freshwater rivers: A multiyear nationwide study across the United States (2026)
    Elsevier eBooks DOI OpenAlex
  • Deep learning driven time series modelling for forecasting water discharge (2026)
    Next research. DOI OpenAlex
  • Structure-reactivity insights in combusting rice straw hydrochar: Role of hydrothermal temperature (2025)
    Renewable Energy 4 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Nitrate-mediated anaerobic microorganism-sponge iron system promoting simultaneous nitrogen and phosphate removal from piggery tail water (2025)
    Journal of Environmental Sciences 2 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Synergistic coupling of bipolar membrane electrodialysis and Fenton process for sustainable management of landfill leachate reverse osmosis concentrate (2025)
    Chemical Engineering Journal 3 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Mitigating VFAs accumulation and enhancing anaerobic stability in continuous-flow leachate from waste transfer stations using zero-valent iron (2025)
    Journal of Water Process Engineering 10 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Microbial Communities in Coastal Salt Marshes Along the Southeast Coast of China and their Effects on Carbon Storage (2025)
    Current Analytical Chemistry DOI OpenAlex
  • Acid-catalyzed co-hydrothermal carbonization of sewage sludge and mixed straws to produce high-quality solid fuel (2024)
    Renewable Energy 10 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Machine learning to assess and support safe drinking water supply: a systematic review (2024)
    Journal of environmental chemical engineering 16 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Flexible beads-on-string hierarchically porous carbon nanofiber/nanotube composites for enhanced capacitive deionization performance in water desalination (2024)
    Journal of environmental chemical engineering 4 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Co-hydrothermal carbonization of sewage sludge and rice straw to improve hydrochar quality: Effects of mixing ratio and hydrothermal temperature (2024)
    Bioresource Technology 41 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • qPCR-based phytoplankton abundance and chlorophyll a: A multi-year study in twelve large freshwater rivers across the United States (2024)
    The Science of The Total Environment 4 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Energy and economic assessment of hydrothermal-treatment-coupled anaerobic digestion (2024)
    Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 18 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Mixotrophic Chlorella pyrenoidosa biofilm with enhanced biomass production, microalgal activity, and nutrient removal from nutrient-rich wastewater (2024)
    Journal of Environmental Sciences 7 citations DOI OpenAlex

View all publications on OpenAlex →

Federal Grants 1 $177,108 total

Collaboration Network

80 Collaborators 30 Institutions 3 Countries

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