He named Laura and William Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering
Jason He is known for his work on wastewater treatment and resource recovery
Jason He, an expert in wastewater treatment and environmental biotechnology, has been named the Laura and William Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering.
He joined the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 2020, where he established the Environmental Biotechnology and Bioenergy Lab. His research focuses on developing advanced technologies to recover resources from wastewater.
Contrary to most people’s view of wastewater as disposable, He sees wastewater as a source of valuable materials when treated properly with advanced biotechnologies. For example, electrochemical devices built in He’s lab can remove and recover phosphorus, a valuable fertilizer. The technology He is developing can upgrade biogas recovered from wastewater into methane to fuel renewable bioenergy production. A microbial electrochemical system developed in He’s lab harvests nutrients to grow purer algal biomass, which can then be used in the production of dietary supplements, pigments and pharmaceuticals. He also developed a dual-function wastewater treatment system that recovers electricity while filtering water.
“Jason He’s innovative work in wastewater treatment and environmental biotechnology stands as a testament to his outstanding contributions to the field,” said Aaron F. Bobick, dean of the McKelvey School of Engineering and the James M. McKelvey Professor. “His appointment as the Laura and William Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering is a recognition of his groundbreaking research and commitment to developing sustainable solutions for the future. We are proud to have such a visionary leader and dedicated educator as part of our faculty.”
He earned a doctorate in environmental engineering in 2007 at WashU. Prior to joining the WashU faculty, he was a professor at Virginia Tech in the Charles E. Via Jr., Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Previously, He was an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering & Mechanics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Southern California.
He is the director of WashU’s Center for Water Innovation. He is also a fellow of the Water Environment Federation and of the International Water Association. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hazardous Materials and of Water Environment Research.
About the Laura and William Jens Professorship in Environmental Engineering
In 1992 Stifel Jens, a nationally recognized consulting engineer in hydrology and hydraulics who earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Washington University, helped launch WashU’s program in environmental engineering by establishing the Jens Environmental Engineering Laboratory and this professorship, named in honor of his parents, Laura and William Jens.
William Jens was born in Germany in 1853. He earned a degree in civil engineering in Hanover, Germany, before emigrating to the United States. From 1896 to 1901, he was chief engineer for the St. Louis Transit Co., an operator of electric streetcars. The 1898 formation of United Railways Co. of St. Louis marked the beginning of the unification of the St. Louis streetcar system. St. Louis Transit Co., where Jens headed the consolidation project, leased the company for the next five years. Jens and John J. Lichter subsequently formed a consulting engineering company. William Jens died in 1911.
Laura Jens was born in St. Louis in 1865. She was the daughter of Christopher A. Stifel, who founded Stifel and Blochman, a wholesale leaf tobacco business, in 1863 and who became president of the German Mutual Life Insurance Co. in 1891. She died in 1938.
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