Environmental Biotechnology and Bioenergy Laboratory

Member Honors

2024
- Kaichao Yang & Yue Rao: winners of 2024 CAPEES Virtual Student Poster Competition
- Kaichao Yang: 2024 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad
- Kaichao Yang: EECE Annual Research Impact Awards.
- Ariel Richards: WEF InFLOW STEMpath 2024 Scholar.
- Yue Rao & Jiasi Sun: the 1st place in the wastewater category at the Midwest Student Design Contest.
- Zixuan Wang: W. Wesley Eckenfelder Graduate Research Award, AAEES/AEESP
- Yue Rao: the Ronald Layton Student Award, Missouri Water Environment Association.
- Kaichao Yang: the 2nd place in Wastewater category, Fresh Ideas Student Poster Competition, MWEA/MO-AWWA Joint Annual Meeting.
- Yue Rao: the 3rd place in Wastewater category, Fresh Ideas Student Poster Competition, MWEA/MO-AWWA Joint Annual Meeting.

2023
- Jiasi Sun: Best Interdisciplinary Approach Award, Mid-American Environmental Engineering Conference.
- Zixuan Wang: 2023 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad
- Zixuan Wang: 2023 CAPEES-Elsevier Outstanding Graduate Award.
- Jiasi Sun: the 1st place in the Intelligent Water Challenge by Illinois Water Environment Association.
- Zixuan Wang: co-winner of Graduate Student Flash Talk Competition, the 2023 CWI Annual Research Symposium.
- Matthew Ferby: the 3rd place in Wastewater category, Fresh Ideas Student Poster Competition, MWEA/MO-AWWA Joint Annual Meeting.
- Kaichao Yang: the 1st place, Fresh Ideas Student Poster Competition, MWEA/MO-AWWA Joint Annual Meeting.

2022
- Yanran Xu & Zixuan Wang: the 2nd place in the 1st Intelligent Water Challenge by Illinois Water Environment Association.
- Zixuan Wang: the 3rd place, Fresh Ideas Student Poster Competition, MWEA/MO-AWWA Joint Annual Meeting.

2021
- Yanran Xu: the 2nd place in the 2021 Intelligent Water Systems Challenge.
- Zixuan Wang: Award of the 2021 CAPEES Student E-Poster Competition.
- Matthew Ferby: the Ronald Layton Student Award from Missouri Water Environment Association.
- Zixuan Wang: EECE Annual Research Impact Awards.

2020
- Yanran Xu: the R.E. Speece Fellowship, 2020 Short-course on Industrial Waste Anaerobic Treatment (Marquette University)
- Shiqiang Zou: 2019 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad
- Askahy Jain: the 1st place in the category of "Old problems, New solution" at Virginia Tech Graduate school's GSA Research Symposium

2019
- 2019 WaterJAM: Zixuan Wang won the 1st pace in Wastewater poster; Yuan Pan won the 2nd place in Digital Knowledge Competition; and Bing Xu was a member of VT team that won the 2nd place in Student Water Challenge.
- Syeed Md Iskander: 1st Place Presentor on Annual Research Symposium of VT Alpha Epsilon (The Honor Society of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering)
- The 35th GSA Research Symposium: Syeed Md Iskander (Gold Award), Shiqiang Zou (Silver Award)
- Shiqiang Zou: Graduate Research Award from Division of Environmental Chemistry, ACS
- Jessie Chung: Sussman Summer Intership Award
- Syeed Md Iskander: 2019 Diversity Scholar by the Office of Recruitment, Diversity, and Inclusion, Graduate School, Virginia Tech.
- Akshay Jain: selected to participate in the Preparing the Future Professoriate: Global Perspectives program for 2019

2018
- 2018 WaterJAM: Lu Guan (a recent MS graduate) won the 1st pace in Wastewater poster; Shiqiang won the 1st place in Water poster; Akshay won the 1st place and Jessie won the 2nd place in Digital Knowledge Competition.
- 2018 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad: Shuai Luo
- Shiqiang Zou: 2018 VA AWWA Graduate Student Scholarship
- The 34th GSA Research Symposium: Shiqiang Zou - 2nd place in the interdisciplinary poster category
- Matthew Ferby: Sussman Summer Intership Award

2017
-"Top Reviewers in 2017" by Water Environment Research: Xiaojin Li and Shiqiang Zou
- 2017 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad: Mohan Qin and Heyang Yuan
- 2017 WaterJAM Poster Competition: Shuai Luo won the 1st place in Wastewater category, and Shiqiang Zou won the 1st place in Water category.
- Mohan Qin: 2017 VA AWWA Graduate Student Scholarship
- Jenna O’Brien: 2017 VWEA Undergraduate Scholarship
- Matthew Ferby: Via MS Fellow and New Horizon Graduate Fellow
- Dylan Cowell: Via MS Fellow
- Via Teaching Fellow: Mohan Qin and Heyang Yuan
- VWEA Student Design Competition: 2nd Place (Katherine Olso, Pranav Sai Shanker Sampara, and Yishuang Wang)
- Pranav Sai Shanker Sampara: 3rd Place in the Competition "Viral Imagination"
- The 33rd GSA Research Symposium: Shiqiang Zou - Gold Award in oral presentation, Syeed Iskander - 1st Place in Interdisciplinary Scholar Award, and Shuai Luo - Silver Award in poster presentation.
- Heyang Yuan: runner-up of the Student Research Award of Sigma Xi Virginia Tech Chapter

2016
- Hayden Tse: 3rd place in the Undergraduate Research poster, 6th CEE Research Day
- 2016 WaterJAM: Ping won the poster competition in Water category and will represent VA section on ACE 2017; Shiqiang won the poster competition in Wastewater category; the VT team, four of whose members were EBBLers (Katherine, Nevi, Ke, and Pranav), won the first place in the Water Challenge.
- Syeed Iskander, Shiqiang Zou, and Akshay Jain: 2nd place in the 2016 Environmental Challenge International (ECi) Competition
- Katherine Olson, Hayden Tse, Xiaoxue Xiang, Xiaoran Ma, and Qinying Zha: 3rd place and People's Choice Award on NEWT Global Water Technologies Competition
- Shuai Luo, Mohan Qin, Katherine Olson, and Hayden Tse: Semifinalist of the 8th Annual Global Entrapreneurship Challenge (VT Knowledge Works)
- Syeed Iskander: full scholarship of 2016 SWIS - ISWA Competition on Sustainable Waste Management Essay; the Jaqueline Shields Memorial Scholarship from Air and Waste Management Association; PhD Scholarship from Environmental Research and Education Foundation

2015
- Mohan Qin: 2015 Innovation Award for Best Technological Advancement from International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology (ISMET)
- 2015 WaterJAM: Heyang Yuan won the 1st place in Wastewater poster competition.
- Syeed Iskander: Pratt Fellowship
- Shiqiang Zou: Curry Fellowship
- Shuai Luo, Mohan Qin, Katherine Olson, and Hayden Tse: Third Runner-up in the Reclaim Video competition
- Hayden Tse: Undergraduate Student Award, Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society; 2015 VWEA Undergraduate Scholarship

2014
- Shuai Luo: Curry Fellowship;
- Xiaojin (Jim) Li: Pratt Fellowship

2013
- Jian (Jim) Li: Pratt Fellowship
- Brett Bevers: Undergraduate Student Award, Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society
- Li Xiao: Academic Excellence Award, the Central States Water Environmental Association

2012
- Patrick Kelly: Undergraduate Student Award, Division of Environmental Chemistry of the American Chemical Society
- Zheng (John) Ge: the 3rd Place, the CEAS Annual Graduate Poster Competition
- Mary Arugular: selected by NSF ADVANCE grant to UW System Women & Science Program

2010
- Paolo Torres and Kyle Jacobson: the Finalist of the UWM CEAS Annual Undergraduate Poster Competition