Wensi Chen, Ph.D., grew up on the southeastern coast China, in Wenzhou, and as a young student felt drawn to chemistry. In middle and high school, she participated in the chemistry club and excelled in chemistry classes.
Now, Chen is an assistant professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University. Her research aims to improve decentralized water treatment using electricity.
How did a chemistry-loving student become an engineer? And can her research help us learn how electricity can improve water quality?
Learning through change
It started when Chen was in college. While getting her bachelor’s degree in chemistry, she interned in a chemistry lab making materials.
“My main job was synthesizing different kinds of nanomaterials, nanospheres, nanowires, nanotubes, and things like that,” she said. “I really enjoyed learning how to make these materials. But at the same time, I started wondering, ‘What can we actually do with them?’ I became more interested in how the chemistry I was learning could connect to real-world problems and improve people’s lives.”
She spoke with professors in several different fields and eventually became interested in environmental engineering.
“I felt it was a great way to connect fundamental chemistry with practical problems, especially problems related to water and the environment,” she said. “I then spent about a year and a half doing research in an environmental engineering lab and working on electrochemical water treatment.”
After earning her bachelor’s degree in chemistry, she began her doctoral studies in environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This field allowed her to apply chemistry to the real world, and the shift from chemistry to engineering felt natural for the most part, she said.
What was a big change, however, was the types of questions she was answering.
“In school, there are direct answers,” Chen said. “Research is different. It comes with a lot of failure. Having a support system is really important.”
During graduate school, her advisor’s support was an integral part of her success, she says. Chen’s Ph.D. research focused on developing novel materials for water treatment and public health applications.
Coming to Texas
After earning her doctorate, Chen came to Texas A&M to be a professor in January 2024.
“The common theme of my Ph.D. research was taking materials and chemistry and turning them into practical tools for solving environmental problems, and that theme has stayed with me throughout my career,” she said. “Now that I have started my own independent research lab, we are still asking a very similar question: how can we use chemistry and materials science to develop better technologies for clean water, environmental protection, and public health? The specific materials and problems have changed, but the motivation behind the research is very much the same.”
In the Chen Research Group, she currently leads three graduate students and three undergraduate students in research projects related to water treatment and environmental health.
In her three years at Texas A&M, she has already gained much recognition. In 2024, she was selected to be a TWRI Faculty Fellow. She is also an ES&T Early Career Board (ECB) Member and was awarded a 2023 Excellence in Review Award from the ACS ES&T Engineering Journal.
She teaches three classes: environmental engineering, Principles of Environmental Engineering Chemistry, and Special Topics in Environmental Nanotechnology, and enjoys teaching the next generation of engineers. “I find myself not only teaching but also learning from the students,” Chen said.
What she likes most about her job, however, is doing research. “Research is how we make progress,” she said.
Cleaning water with electricity
One focus of Chen’s current research is developing products that use electricity to clean water through a process called electrooxidation.
Electrooxidation removes contaminants by breaking down organic pollutants into water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen gas. Because it does not require extra chemicals, electrooxidation offers a clean, affordable, and scalable way to treat water, according to researchers.
In a recent study published in ACS Electrochemistry, Chen’s research group created a filter of nanoscale titanium dioxide wires that self-assemble into a very thin, porous network on graphite felt. This filter is doped with palladium to increase electrical conductivity and chemical stability.
When connected to a flow electrolyzer and power supply, they found that the filter was highly efficient at removing micropollutants and showed long-term stability.
Despite all of these accomplishments, when asked what she’s most proud of so far, Chen said the best is yet to come.
Advice for undergraduate students in engineering and water
Chen’s advice to students is to try everything.
“Try as many things as you can and reach out to resources,” she said.
Trying something completely different often brings unanticipated benefits. During her undergraduate studies, Chen got a minor in business, which, although not directly relevant to her current work, has helped her in unexpected ways.
She encourages incoming students to try new experiences and research opportunities, whether it’s working in a lab, taking a unique class, or exploring new fields and adding a minor to your degree.
“Minoring in business taught me to think beyond just the technical side of a problem, for example, whether an idea is practical, how it might be communicated to other people, and how something developed in the lab could eventually be used in the real world,” she said. “I think it also encouraged me to think outside the box.”
