Huang honored for contributions to environmental engineering education and research

Chin-Pao Huang, Donald C. Philips Professor and Francis Alison Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Delaware, has been teaching and conducting research in environmental engineering for 45 years.

For all of his accomplishments over almost half a century, Huang recently received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Asian American Engineer of the Year Award and Conference. The event was held in Bellevue, Washington, on Feb. 24 and 25.

“Prof. Huang is globally known for pioneering research in adsorption processes, advanced oxidation technology, and environmental nanotechnology for water quality control,” said Jy-Shing Wu, professor at the University of North Carolina, who nominated Huang for the honor and introduced him at the awards ceremony.

At a at a celebration of Huang’s 40 years of service in Taiwan, Stephen Shu-Hung Shen, former administrator of Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency, called Huang “a great master” and “a highly respected and world renowned scholar” who has “nurtured numerous elites in the area of environmental science and engineering.”

Huang has more than 300 publications, including one Citation Classic and three best paper awards, with a current h-index of 70 and 27,500 total citations (Google Scholar). He has mentored 14 postdoctoral researchers and supervised the thesis research of more than 100 graduate students.

His former students and postdocs have positions as university president, vice president, college dean, department chair, research center director, and professor at major universities in the U.S., China, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, Turkey, Spain and Brazil.

Huang is a former president of the Oversees Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA) and co-organizer and chair of the First Mainland-Taiwan Environmental Protection Conference in Shanghai in 1987.

He also co-founded the International Conference on Sustainable Water Environment, which has been in operation for 14 years among hosting countries including the U.S., China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Singapore. He is also a fellow of the Chinese Institute of Environmental Engineering as well as a diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and the American Academy of Water Resource Engineers.

Huang’s previous honors and awards include the Gordon Maskew Fair Medal from the Water Environment Federation for worthy accomplishments in the training and development of future engineers (1999) and the Gordon Maskew Fair Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers for substantial contributions to the status of the engineering profession, the quality of the world’s environment, and the Academy (2012).

Huang has also been honored in two special journal issues: “Advances in Research and Development of Sustainable Environmental Technology,” (Journal of Environmental Engineering, America Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 138, No. 3, 2012) and “Environmental Nanotechnology and Sustainability in Water Treatment,” (Journal of Separation and Purification Technology, Elsevier, Vol. 156, No. 3, 2015).

In addition, he was honored by the Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society in 2014 with a special symposium, “Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Treatment Processes,” commemorating his lifetime achievements and contributions to environmental chemistry research.

About the award

Founded in 1917, the Chinese Institute of Engineers-USA (CIE-USA) is a nonprofit professional organization of Chinese-American engineers, scientists and other professionals. In conjunction with National E-week, CIE-USA hosts the annual Asian American Engineering of the Year Award (AAEOY).

AAEOY creates a meaningful platform to recognize outstanding Asian American professionals in the areas of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and leadership from industry, academia, government and other national institutions. Many of their achievements represent monumental breakthroughs in their respective fields, and their impacts are global and everlasting.

Each year, AAOEY confers two distinguished awards: the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award and the Distinguished Science and Technology Award (this year’s recipient is Prof. Nam Pyo Suh of MIT). A list of all past and current awardees can be found on the website.