November 19, 2025
Chair
Jie Zhuang, Ph.D.
FEWSUS Director, Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Chair of Workshop Organizing Committee
Biography: Dr. Jie (Joe) Zhuang is a Professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, Director of environmental and soil science graduate studies, Member of the Advisory Council of University of Tennessee (UT) Institute of Agriculture, and Faculty Lead of the cluster hire initiative of resilient agriculture and forest systems (RAFS) at UT. He received his B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in soil science from Shenyang Agricultural University (China). His research topics range from food-energy-water nexus to fate and transport of contaminants (such as viruses, bacteria, organic pollutants, heavy metals, engineering nanoparticles, and nutrients), soil hydrology modeling, pore-scale carbon-water interactions, crop-water relations, and physical foundation of phage-host interactions. In recent years, he links soil science to food-energy-water nexus by innovating strategies or solutions for soil restoration, safe reclaimed water irrigation, and soil resilience to environmental stresses. Currently, Dr. Zhuang leads projects aiming to develop climate-smart food-energy-water nexus on small farms within the framework of circular bioeconomy. In teaching, he provides undergraduate and graduate students with transdisciplinary training for understanding the complexity and impacts of food-energy-water nexus, circular agriculture, and food circular bioeconomy.
Email: jzhuang@utk.edu