Liyuan Hou

Environmental

Assistant Professor


 Joanna (Liyuan) Hou

Contact Information

Office Location: UWRL 307
Phone: 435-797-1533
Email: liyuan.hou@usu.edu
Additional Information:

Educational Background

PhD, Civil Engineering, University of Missouri, 2019
MS, Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2014
BS, Environmental Engineering, Huaqiao University, 2011

Biography

Dr. Liyuan (Joanna) Hou is an assistant professor in the Utah Water Research Laboratory and Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She also serves as an adjunct professor in the Biological Engineering Department. She dedicates herself to researching applied environmental microbiology to monitor, minimize, or valorize contaminants and wastes.

Teaching Interests

Emerging Contaminants, Environmental Microbiology, Wastewater Engineering, Biodegradation, Bioremediation, Resource Recovery

Research Interests

Her research focuses on investigating and utilizing functional microbial communities to promote water quality and resource recovery in engineered and natural systems. In her research, she applies various methodologies such as genome sequencing, metabolic engineering, and metabolite analysis in the engineering aspect to understand how the contaminants interact with microbes to enhance the removal or valorization of contaminants. Her research interests fall under two themes: (1) exploring the interactions between microbes and multi-contaminants to track the transport, source, and driver of multiple pollutants in urban wastewater; and (2) understanding the interactions like biodegradation mechanisms of pollutants to minimize and valorize waste using microbes.

Awards

Sigrid Leirmo Memorial Award, 2022

University of Wisconsin-Madison


Publications | Journal Articles

Academic Journal

An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.

Publications | Other

An asterisk (*) at the end of a publication indicates that it has not been peer-reviewed.

Teaching

CEE 6650 - Biological Processes in Environmental Engineering, Fall 2023
CEE 2620 - Environmental Engineering Microbiology, Spring 2023
CEE 6930 - Special Problems, Fall 2022

Graduate Students Mentored

Peerzada Madany, Civil & Environmental Engr, August 2023
Ceaira Howard, Civil & Environmental Engr, August 2023
Tahira Rahman, August 2022