Prof. April Z. Gu joined the Cornell faculty in 2018. She received her B.S. in Environmental Engineering and Science from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, jointly in Microbiology, from the University of Washington, US. She worked as a process engineer and research scientist for HDR Engineering, specializing in water and wastewater treatment processes design for three years before she returned to academia. Her major research interest involves understanding and applying biological agents (e.g. microorganisms) and their functions to detect, transform or mitigate environmental pollutants in both natural and engineered systems. Prof. Gu was a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the Northeastern University from 2006 to 2017. She stays active in both academic societies and water professional organizations and has served on various committees for IWA, WEF, ACS and AEESP.