Yujie Men

Yujie Men is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She joined the faculty in March 2016. Prior to this, she held postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Berkeley (2012-2013) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) (2014-2016).

Yujie Men holds the following educational qualifications:

• B.S. in Environmental Engineering, Tsinghua University, 2005
• M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, 2007
• Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2012

Her research focuses on advancing sustainable biotechnologies for cleaner water and environmental safety. Key areas include microbial metabolic diversities and microbe-microbe interactions in both built and natural environments. Using high-throughput molecular approaches like metagenomics and metabolomics, her work aims to optimize functional microbial consortia for applications such as groundwater bioremediation, anaerobic wastewater treatment, and understanding contaminant biotransformation pathways. Specific research areas include:

• Removal of greenhouse gases and nitrogen nutrients using anaerobic microbial communities
• Linkages between antimicrobial chemicals and antibiotic resistance in environmental microorganisms
• Identification of enzymes in activated sludge for transforming contaminants of emerging concern (CECs)
• Development of resilient microbial consortia to recover value-added compounds from biosolids

Dr. Men leads the MEN Research Group, focusing on innovative environmental biotechnologies. While specific grants and advising details are not provided here, her work emphasizes collaborative research in environmental engineering and science.

She is affiliated with the MEN Research Group at the University of Illinois, dedicated to advancing sustainable solutions in environmental microbiology and biotechnology.