Dr. Jia Liu joined the School of Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, as an assistant professor in 2015, where she was promoted to associate professor in 2021. She was a water treatment specialist before that. She obtained her Ph.D. degree from the University of Houston in 2014, focusing on environmental application of transition metal nanomaterials; M.S. degrees from the same university in 2010 concentrated on impact of metallic nanomaterials on bacteria, and from Donghua University in 2006 specialized in biotechnology; and B.S. degree from Taiyuan University of Technology in 2003, all in Environmental Engineering. Her research focuses on developing cost-effective nanomaterials used in water treatment (e.g., for removing contaminants of emerging concerns), and investigating impacts of engineered nanomaterials on microorganisms.