Dr. Helen Nguyen is currently an associate professor of environmental engineering and a faculty affiliate with Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining the University of Illinois, she was a Gaylord Donnelley Environmental Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. Her research group focuses on waterborne pathogens for global water and food safety. Besides a number of projects based in the US, her group is conducting research in developing countries on human resilience to waterborne infectious disease outbreak related to extreme natural events. Her group has published on a wide range of topics related to the human health impact of water reuse, food safety, impacts of the extreme flood on pathogen spreading, and pathogens in drinking water distribution systems. She has led multiple interdisciplinary projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Department of Agriculture. She is currently leading three interdisciplinary projects on human health impacts of on-farm reuse of wastewater in small rural communities and urban hydroponic farming in the US and in Israel. Dr. Nguyen is the recipient of the 2006 AEESP/CH2M Hill Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2010 NSF CAREER award, 2010 ASCE/EWB Sustainable Development Award, 2012 and 2016 University of Illinois College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Research Excellence. She was also awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Israel and a Visiting Fellowship from Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. She is currently serving on Editorial Advisory Board for Environmental Science & Technology and as an Associate Editor for Environment International.
