Mitigating N2O emission from wastewater treatment processes

Biography

Dr Bing Guo is a Professor in the School of Engineering, and Institute for Sustainability fellow and Programme Lead on Water Innovation and Sustainability.

Prof Bing Guo is Professor of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology in the School of Engineering, Programme Lead for Protecting and Enhancing the Environment at the Institute for Sustainability, associated fellow at the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI (PAI).

Her research addresses two of the most pressing environmental challenges facing society: achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through a One Health approach. She develops biological solutions that transform wastewater, waste and agricultural systems from sources of pollution into systems that recover resources, generate renewable energy and protect environmental and public health.

Prof Guo leads interdisciplinary research spanning environmental biotechnology, microbial ecology, bioinformatics, artificial intelligence and systems modelling. Her work combines fundamental understanding of microbial communities with practical engineering applications, working closely with water utilities, the biogas sector, regulators and policymakers to accelerate the transition towards sustainable and resilient environmental systems.

She has secured funding from UKRI councils including BBSRC, EPSRC and NERC, Royal Society, (including EPSRC TERC Better Water for All Network+), and collaborates with researchers across the UK, Europe and North America.

She joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2020, promoted to professor in 2024. She received her PhD and MEng in Civil Engineering from McGill University, Canada, and BEng in Environmental Engineering from Beijing Normal University, China. Before joining Surrey, she was awarded the Quebec Postdoctoral Research B3X fellowship in 2019 as a joint postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.

Interdisciplinary research

I work closely with researchers across engineering, biosciences, microbiology, veterinary medicine, physics, robotics and artificial intelligence. These collaborations enable the development of integrated solutions to environmental challenges spanning microbial processes, sensing technologies, data science and policy.

My research is undertaken in partnership with water companies, environmental regulators, public health agencies, policymakers, industry partners and community stakeholders, helping bridge fundamental science, engineering innovation and societal needs. Key areas of impact include:

• Developing approaches to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater treatment processes.

• Advancing anaerobic digestion technologies to improve renewable energy generation and resource recovery. Understanding environmental pathways of antimicrobial resistance transmission and identifying interventions to reduce risks.

• Applying microbial ecology and bioinformatics to improve the design, operation and resilience of environmental biotechnologies.

• Supporting industry and government stakeholders through evidence generation, knowledge exchange and collaborative innovation.

• Engaging with the public and local communities to raise awareness of environmental sustainability, climate change, antimicrobial resistance and the role of biotechnology in addressing global challenges.

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Biography

With the Associate Vice-President, International role, I am responsible for delivering the University's global engagement strategy with a focus on transnational education (TNE), through a pipeline of projects with diverse internal stakeholders and external partners. I also provide guidance to, and facilitate, our international activities in partnership development, brand building, student recruitment, collaborative research, and student/staff mobility.

I am a computational and data scientist, working on AI and digital technologies for cross-disciplinary engineering applications. These include computer modelling of chemical processes using multiscale mechanisms and machine learning, as well as model-based chemical product design and process optimisation. Hence my work can be broadly viewed as 'Digital Chemical Engineering'.

Our activities cut across both methodological research (new computational and systems engineering methods) and applications. We have used computational approaches to help address product design and process operation challenges in areas of pharmaceuticals, healthcare, cosmetics, food, agrochemicals, water processing, steelmaking, amongst others, partnering with industry through collaborative research and R&D consultancy. I currently lead a group of 8 doctoral and 2 postdoctoral researchers. I have been teaching small (ca. 10 students) and large (270+) classes, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As an application-driven computational scientist, I am always keen to explore new fronts under the banner of Digital Chemical Engineering.

I trained as a control engineer with BEng (2000) and MEng (2002) degrees both from Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, China, and PhD (Chemical Engineering / Process Systems Engineering) from Newcastle University in 2006, UK. Prior to joining University of Surrey in 2011 as Lecturer, I worked as Research Associate at Newcastle University (2006-2007), then Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2008-2010).

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