Assistant Professor, McKnight Land-Grant Professor
Contact
160 Civil Engineering Building
500 Pillsbury Drive SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Affiliations
Assistant Professor, McKnight Land-Grant Professor
I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering and Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota (UMN). I obtained my MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering at MIT in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Before joining UMN, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University from 2018 to 2020. I am a passionate environmental scientist interested in developing multiscale and interdisciplinary research to unravel the complex interactions among biota, fluids, and particles (sediment, soil). My group designs multiscale experiments, ranging from microfluidics to flume experiments, to address critical environmental questions related to coastal erosion, harmful algal blooms, soil carbon dynamics, and pathogen and contaminant transport in soil and sediment. I am also a proud first-generation college graduate, teacher, and mentor. As a teacher, my greatest pleasure would be to help empower students from various backgrounds to reach their full potential. I am constantly seeking highly-motivated students and postdocs to join my team. Interested candidates are welcome to contact me directly via email: [email protected].
Outside my lab and the classroom, I am passionate about engaging more young people, especially from under-represented groups, in STEM through science communication and community outreach. I co-produced several science videos (see Videos), volunteered to be math instructor in a correctional facility for females, designed and implemented various outreach activities, and shared my passion about STEM and research to hundreds of K12 girls and Native American students (see Outreach).
Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2020, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University
Graduate Students' Awards
Shih-Hsun Huang: 2023 Charles C.S. Song Fellowship Award
Guanju (William) Wei, Ph.D. student in Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering: 2023 AGU Outstanding Student Presentation Award and the 2024 Heinz G. Stefan Fellowship "Microfluidic Investigation of the Biofilm Growth under Dynamic Fluid Environments"
J. E. San Juan, W. G. Wei, and J. Q. Yang, Impact of salinity on the erosion threshold, yield stress, and gelatinous state of a cohesive clay. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 129, e2023JF007485. (2024).
J. Q. Yang, “Solute flow and particle transport in aquatic ecosystems: A review on the effect of emergent and rigid vegetation,” Environmental Science & Ecotechnology, 2666-4984, 2024. (2024).
G. Wei, and J. Q. Yang, "Microfluidic investigation of the impacts of flow fluctuations on the development of Pseudomonas putida biofilms," npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, 9, 7, (2023).
S. Huang, and J. Q. Yang, "Impacts of channel-spanning log jams on hyporheic flow." Water Resources Research, 59, e2023WR035217, (2023).
W. Wei, and J. Yang, “Impacts of hydrodynamic conditions and microscale surface roughness on the critical shear stress to develop and thickness of early-stage Pseudomonas putida biofilms,” Biotechnology and Bioengineering, pp. 1–12, (2023).
S. Huang and J.Q. Yang, "Impacts of emergent vegetation on hyporheic exchange." Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL099095, (2022).
Y. Li, J.E. Sanfilippo, D. Kearns, and J.Q. Yang, "Corner flows induced by surfactant-producing bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens." Microbiology Spectrum, pp.e03233-22, (2022).
J. Q. Yang, J. Sanfilippo, N. Abbasi, Z. Gitai, B. Bassler, and H. Stone, “Evidence for biosurfactant induced flow in corners and bacterial spreading in unsaturated porous media.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118, e2111060118. (2021)
J. Q. Yang, X. Zhang, I. C. Bourg, and H. A. Stone, “4D imaging reveals mechanisms of clay carbon protection and release." Nature Communications, 12, 622. (2021)
J. Yang and H. Nepf, “Impact of vegetation on bed load transport rate and bedform characteristics,” Water Resources Research 55, 6109-6124 (2019).
J. Yang and H. Nepf, “A turbulence–based bed–load transport model for bare and vegetated channels,” Geophysical Research Letters 45, 10,428–10, 436 (2018).
*AGU EOS Research Spotlight: New Study Shifts Paradigm of Coastal Sediment Modeling.
J. Yang, H. Chung, and H. Nepf, “The onset of sediment transport in vegetated channels predicted by turbulent kinetic energy,” Geophysical Research Letters 43, 11,261–11, 268 (2016).
J. Yang, F. Kerger, and H. Nepf, “Estimation of the bed shear stress in vegetated and bare channels,” Water Resources Research 51, 3647–3663 (2015).
*MIT News and Phys.org highlights: Predicting sediment flow in coastal vegetation