美国西北大学土木与环境工程系Prof. Yun Wang 招收联合培养博士生

普渡哥

Prof. Yun Wang from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at
Northwestern University is seeking for Ph.D. candidates to conduct research
in her lab as exchange students under the joint-training programs sponsored
by China Scholarship Council (CSC).  Students with educational background
in Environmental Chemistry, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, or related
majors are encouraged to apply.  Successful candidates must have research
experience/interests compatible with those of Prof. Wang’s as outlined
below.  

Prof. Wang’s research interests lie at the interface of medical/
environmental microbiology and aqueous geochemistry.  Her lab applies an
interdisciplinary approach to studying how redox-active (bio)molecules react
with environmental constituents and act on the physiology of microbial
communities.  The ultimate goal is to better predict the chemical and
biological impact of bioactive molecules in natural aqueous environments, as
well as highlight strategies for manipulating clinical and environmental
biofilms.  Current research projects include:
(1) Investigating the roles of redox-active toxins to bacterial pathogen
biofilm development and the associated pathogenesis in the context of
infections.  We propose that phenazine “antibiotics” maybe less weapons
for killing than being essential cogs for their producer’s own metabolism
by facilitating electron transfer.  
(2) Examining fungal-bacterial interspecies crosstalk via redox-active
secondary metabolites.  This is a new direction comes out naturally from the
first one to go beyond phenazines and across diverse biological systems.  
Pathogenic Aspergillus fungi and Pseudomonas bacteria are both famous for
producing redox-active toxins.  They often coexist in many disease and
natural environments.  We are interested in understanding whether redox-
active “toxins” produced by one organism can benefit the interspecies
community as a whole in response to environmental cues.
(3) Exploring fungal macromolecules as facilitators of carbon sequestration
and electron transfer, aiming in understanding their roles in global climate
change, and potential applications in designing novel conductive materials.
(4) Engineering bacteria-proof textured steel alloys for medical
applications;
(5) Determining the fate and transformation of (bio)molecules and
environmental pollutants at mineral-water interfaces.
(6) Developing imaging techniques for studying (bio)molecules and organic
pollutants in vivo and in situ.

Prof. Wang obtained her PhD degree in Aquatic Chemistry from the Johns
Hopkins University in 2006.  She then did a postdoc in Molecular Geobiology
at MIT/HHMI & Caltech/HHMI, prior to joining Northwestern University as an
assistant professor in 2009.

Interested candidates should submit an application letter describing
qualifications and research interests/objectives, a full CV, and contact
information of three references in a single PDF file to Yun Wang’s email
address yun-wang@northwestern.edu.