Envisioning Environmental Pollution Research for Planetary Health

Speaker:  Wei Zhang, Associate Professor and Associate Chairperson, Soil and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University

Environmental pollution is one of the major threats to human and planetary health. Contamination of soil, water, and crops raises serious concerns on food safety and potential health risk to humans and animals.  To address these grand challenges, innovative research using transdisciplinary approaches is needed.

In this talk, Zhang will explore environmental processes and impacts of environmental contaminants, including pharmaceuticals, engineered nanoparticles, heavy metals, and infectious proteinaceous
particles. He will highlight an emerging field of computational environmental science (including environmental data science). As environmental interactions are often complex, high-dimensional, and
nonlinear, they require the assistance of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Through these examples, Zhang will also share his personal journey with transdisciplinary work.