Engineer announced as research chair in marine and coastal environmental engineering Engineering professor receives one of the country’s top academic honours

for marine oil spill response. She is also a key researcher with Memorial’s Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control Laboratory, tackling the occurrence, transport, fate, impact and mitigation of emerging coastal contaminants such as microplastics and antibiotics.

Dr. Zhang’s cutting-edge work helps integrate coastal environmental engineering with the key ocean industrial sectors to drive our ocean economies to be more sustainable and productive under a changing climate.

Her research has resulted in invitations from Canada’s Ocean Protection Plan’s Multi-partner Oil Spill Research Initiative as one of the lead scientists.

She also served as senior expert of the United Nations Development Program and received a fellowship from the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering in recognition of her impact on the discipline.

Dr. Zhang and other honorees, which included Dr. Sonja Boon, professor, Department of Gender Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Dr. Julia Christensen, adjunct professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; and Dr. Sheila Garland, associate professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, who is cross-appointed to the Discipline of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, were celebrated by the RSC during a celebration of excellence and engagement this past November in Calgary, Alta. ■■■