Pei Zhao is a Research Scientist at the Waterloo Microfluidics Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. The lab is run by Dr. Carolyn Ren, who was named one of Canada’s most powerful women in 2021.
The Microplastics Fingerprinting project team consists of over 25 faculty members, masters and PhD students, and support staff from various disciplinary backgrounds. We recognize this diversity as a strength that enables an interdisciplinary and holistic evaluation of the challenges and solutions associated with microplastics. Each issue of our newsletter will feature one of the project’s excellent researchers.
Pei is a critical member of Work Package 1, which is working towards the development of a microplastics fingerprint library and methodological workflows to improve detection and analysis of microplastic samples. Pei is very excited to participate in this research, especially because microplastics have been a significant and growing water pollution concern. Pei hopes to contribute to existing knowledge gaps by developing a nanomaterial functionalized microwave-microfluidic sensor for simple and fast examination of microplastics in water.Pei Zhao is a Research Scientist at the Waterloo Microfluidics Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo. The lab is run by Dr. Carolyn Ren, who was named one of Canada’s most powerful women in 2021.
Pei received her BASc and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Tongji University and at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, respectively. During her graduate study she went to Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics as a visiting student and studied nuclear fusion materials. Then she joined the microfluidics group at the University of Waterloo. Pei’s research interests focus on materials and microfluidics for water treatment/monitoring and sustainable energy, such as detection of nutrients in watershed, oil/water separation for oil and water recovery, photocatalytic water purification and materials used in fusion reactors. Pei’s expertise in materials and microfluidics will be extensively utilized in this project to address interdisciplinary microplastic issues.