Professor Ni-Bin Chang is sharing his extensive expertise with researchers and scientists in Europe with his recent acceptance into a prestigious organization.
As a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA), Chang is a part of a 2,000-member association working to advance scientific progress and solve society’s greatest challenges, with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration. He was elected to EASA based on his longstanding academic excellence and impactful research efforts in the environmental engineering field.
“It’s a great honor to be part of this prestigious group of people, including 28 Nobel laureates,” Chang says. “I hope to develop more collaborations with some of these distinguished researchers in the future.”
A licensed professional engineer, Chang has dedicated more than 30 years to developing solutions for environmental challenges from water, soil and air pollution. His work on planning strategies, sustainable design, intelligent monitoring, integrated modeling and preventive practices have impacted communities, urban infrastructures, watersheds and coastal regions. Over Chang’s prolific career, he has focused on solving interdisciplinary problems to promote sustainable development.
One of his most recent projects was developing a cost-effective water biofiltration system to clean up agriculture discharge in South Florida’s St. Lucie River Basin. Using innovative green sorption media — materials from recycled or natural materials such as iron filings, clay, perlite or sand — the work simultaneously removed a number of pollutants, including nitrogen, phosphorus, bacteria, algal masses and per or polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS.
His lab, the Stormwater Management Academy, developed a long-term monitoring solution for remediation efforts at the basin known as the Cortical Gap Network (CGN). Grounded in neurocomputational principles, the novel transformer-based model architecture processes data from multiple physical, chemical and microbiological sensors at the cleanup site at St. Lucie River Basin.
Though it was developed specifically to monitor the cleanup site for St. Lucie, Chang says his work shows promise for other fields such as air pollution and groundwater pollution.
“CGN has potential for applications in many increasingly critical domains, including weather forecasting, vision language modeling, ecosystem monitoring, and water resources management,” he says.
Chang has been honored for his contributions by being elected as a Fellow by a number of prestigious organizations, including the National Academy of Inventors, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the International Society of Optics and Photonics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the International Association for Advanced Materials and the Asia-Pacific Intelligence Association. He served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Remote Sensing published by the International Society for Optics and Photonics from 2014 to 2023 and is the current editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hydroinformatics published by the International Water Association. Chang earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in environmental systems engineering from Cornell University in 1989 and 1991, respectively.
- Written by Bel Huston