Time: May 19, 2015

Author: Zhang Yu

Publisher: Lu Jianmin

Prof. Zeng Yongping, president of JNU's College of the Environment, has been named to the Hundred Talents Training Program for south Guangdong.

Zeng was a candidate for the Hundred Outstanding Young Chinese Scientists, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003 (assessed excellent in 2008) and achieved the National Outstanding Young Science Fund (Foreign) in 2005. He won the honorary title of the Third Chinese Academy of Sciences Innovative Culture Construction Advanced Individual, became an academic leader of the National Innovative Research Group Science Foundation in 2008, and was warmly received by General Secretary Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao as an outstanding returning overseas student.

Selected by the U.S. Information Science Institute's basic Science Indicator environment and ecological high citation rate scientist catalogue, Zeng is currently doing research mainly on regional environmental geochemistry and hazardous electronic waste. He has published more than 160 articles on the Science Citation Index, among them more than 40 articles in Environmental Science & Technology(ES&T), a top international publication on environmental science.

Zeng's current projects also include environmental problems of the Pearl River Delta and e-waste, He recently started to study the accumulation of organic pollutants in the food chain."My purpose of study is not to expose anything," he said. "I hope to convey information from the perspective of the researcher. Our ultimate goal is to protect human health."

Zeng has served on the advisory board of ES&T and as the associate editor of mainstream publications including Science of the Total Environment, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and the Journal of Hydrology. Since June 1 he has been the chief editor of another authoritative publication, Environmental Pollution.

The College of the Environment was inaugurated in a ceremony on Nov. 1, 2014. As its first president, Zeng said it would take the fighting spirit of "ceaseless self-improvement, striving and go forward in unity" to achieve the school's establishing goals and tasks and live up to everyone's expectations.

"As for my requirements of students, there are only two words: be serious," he said, dignifying those two simple words. "You should take a serious attitude toward not only study, but everything. As long as you are serious about everything you do, then nothing is a problem."

From 2009 to 2013, the Chinese Academy of Science has awarded Zeng its "Excellent Teacher" award three times, "Outstanding Postgraduate Instructor" once and "Zhu Liyuehua Excellent Teacher" once.

He is full of hope about his college's future. "I hope there will be a beautiful building for the environmental college, a nest to attract the phoenix," he said. "I hope there will be a number of important research projects and a group of high-level talents."