He receives the 2025 Frederick George Pohland Medal
Zhen (Jason) He was honored by the AEESP and AAEES for his work in environmental engineering
Zhen (Jason) He, associate chair and Laura and William Jens Professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, has been awarded the 2025 Frederick George Pohland Medal by the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) and American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES).
The Frederick George Pohland Medal was named after the late Frederick G. Pohland, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Edward R. Weidlein Chair of Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. This award recognizes individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to connecting environmental engineering research, education and practice. Only members of AEESP and/or AAEES are eligible to receive this award.
He received the award during the AEESP Research and Education Conference at Duke University in May 2025.
He’s Environmental Biotechnology & Bioenergy Laboratory explores the intersection of microbiology, engineering and electrochemistry. The lab seeks to understand the microbial and electrochemical processes in engineered systems designed for resource recovery from wastewater treatment. He’s work includes but is not limited to biotechnology development for wastewater treatment, bioenergy production using microbial fuel cells, sustainable desalination technology, bioremediation using bio-electrochemical techniques and the understanding of those and other environmental biological processes.
He is the director of WashU’s Center for Water Innovation (CWI) and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hazardous Materials and of Water Environment Research.
He has been recognized with numerous awards and honors for his contributions to environmental engineering. He was a Faculty Fellow in 2017 and received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Research in 2019 from the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. In 2018, he received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers and was named a highly cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics. In 2020, he was elected a Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA) and in 2022, he was named a Water Environment Federation (WEF) fellow. He is a board-certified Environmental Engineering Member by Eminence by AAEES.
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