Environmental science and engineering

The discipline of Environmental Science and Engineering is the significant supporting subject of the two majors– forestry and forest engineering in NFU, and it is a comprehensive characteristic discipline developed on the basis of integrating the relevant research directions of forestry chemical engineering, wood processing, ecology and other disciplines in NFU.

In 2000, the undergraduate program of environmental science and environmental engineering was established; until 2003, the master program of environmental science and environmental engineering was granted as well. Since then, the discipline has been on the track of rapid development. In 2009, it was approved as the key primary program of the NFU. In 2011, 2014 and 2018, the discipline was selected as one of the subjects of Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

After years of development, the discipline of environmental science and engineering has formed a team mainly composed of young and middle-aged faculties with active academic ideas, a reasonable position and academic degree structure, and considerable scientific research strength as well. Currently, there are 45 full-time faculty members, including 12 professors, 22 associate professors; while over 82% members have doctorates;  27 members (~60%) have obtained degrees abroad or have experience studying abroad more than one year. Among the faculty, one professor is titled as the former member of the discipline evaluation group of the State Council, two professors are entitled to the special allowance of the State Council, one is a “Young and Middle-aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions” winner in Jiangsu Province, two are “333 leading talents project (Level II)” in Jiangsu province, and six are awarded the "Qing Lan Project" in Jiangsu Province.

The discipline has a good teaching and research platform. It is recognized as a superior subject in Jiangsu Province, which has been constructed in three phases. It has provincial environmental development center, Provincial Key Laboratory of forestry ecological engineering, two national fix-position observation stations of Hongze Lake and Taihu Lake Wetland Ecosystem in Jiangsu Province and a batch of enterprise graduate workstations. Four stable research directions of the discipline have been developed, including waste treatment and resource utilization, environmental ecological engineering, environmental chemistry and environmental pollution control. Among these, waste treatment and resource utilization, and environmental ecological engineering are the characteristic disciplines research area. The environmental science and engineering laboratory occupies a total area of 2676m2, fully equipped with advanced experimental instruments worth of 35.68 million RMB.

In the past five years, the team has undertaken and presided over more than 50 scientific research projects at or above the provincial level, including 15 national scientific research projects, 26 provincial and ministerial projects, with a total fund of 46 million RMB; obtained 9 scientific research awards at or above the provincial level; authorized 60 invention patents; published 252 papers, including 86 SCI papers; published 5 text books and monographs, and undertaken 2 provincial quality courses.

In the past five years, 103 graduates have been trained in the program, and 22 graduates continued to pursue the Ph.D. program, accounting for about 20%. Furthermore, 94 graduate students have participated in the domestic and international conferences.