Professor Heileen (Helen) Hsu-Kim is an aquatic chemist whose research investigates biogeochemical processes that affect the fate of trace elements in the environment. In particular, she is interested in the biogeochemical cycling of pollutant metals and interfacial processes controlling the fate and bioavilability of nanoparticles in aquatic systems.

Dr. Hsu-Kim's current research projects are focused on mercury biogeochemistry, the environmental implications of nanomaterials, and the impacts of coal ash disposal and coal mining on water quality. A central theme to her work is the utilization of chemical speciation for understanding and predicting the persistence, mobility and bioavailability of metals and minerals in the aquatic environment.

The methodologies her group employs for this research include laboratory techniques for quantifying trace metal speciation, water-surface interactions, and in-situ applications of solid-state microelectrodes to determine important aquatic constituents in water and sediment.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	127A Hudson Hall
Office Phone:	(919) 660-5109
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://hsukim.pratt.duke.edu/

Education:

PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2004

MS, University of California, Berkeley, 1999

BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998

Research Interests: Environmental Engineering

Aquatic chemistry and geochemistry, trace element environmental chemistry, nanogeoscience, mercury biogeochemistry, water-particle surface processes.

Specialties:

Water, Resources and Treatment
Environmental Engineering
Environmental Impacts

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

Early Career Research Award, Department of Energy, Office of Science, 2011
NSF Ridge 2000 Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2004
ACS Environmental Chemistry Division Graduate Student Paper Award, 2003
UC-Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, 2000
National Physical Science Consortium Graduate Student Fellowship, 1998-2004
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 1998

• CEE 461L.001, CHEM PRINCIPLES IN ENV ENG Synopsis

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• CEE 461L.01L, CHEM PRINCIPLES IN ENV ENG Synopsis

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• CEE 461L.02L, CHEM PRINCIPLES IN ENV ENG Synopsis

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• CEE 561L.001, ENVIRONMENTAL AQUATIC CHEM Synopsis

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Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1. Zhang, T.; Kim, B.; Levard, C.; Reinsch, B. C.; Lowry, G. V.; Deshusses, M. A.; Hsu-Kim, H., Methylation of mercury by bacteria exposed to dissolved, nanoparticulate, and microparticulate mercuric sulfides, Environmental Science & Technology, vol. In press (2012) [es203181m], [doi] .
2. Yang, X.; Gondikas, A. P.; Marinakos, S. M.; Auffan, M.; Liu, J.; Hsu-Kim, H.; Meyer, J. N., Mechanism of silver nanoparticle toxicity is dependent on dissolved silver and surface coating in Caenohabditis elegans, Environmental Science \& Technology, vol. 46 no. 2 (2012), pp. 1119-1127 [es202417t], [doi] .
3. Gondikas, A. P.; Morris, A.; Reinsch, B. C.; Marinakos, S. M.; Lowry, G. V.; Hsu-Kim, H., Cysteine-induced modifications of zero-valent silver nanomaterials: Implications for particle surface chemistry, aggregation, dissolution, and silver speciation, Environmental Science \& Technology, vol. In press (2012) [es3001757], [doi] .
4. Deonarine, A.; Lau, B. L. T.; Aiken, G. R.; Ryan, J. N.; Hsu-Kim, H., Effects of humic substances on precipitation and aggregation of zinc sulfide nanoparticles, Environmental Science \& Technology, vol. 45 no. 8 (2011), pp. 3217--3223 [es1029798], [doi] .
5. Aiken, G. R.; Hsu-Kim, H.; Ryan, J. N., Influence of dissolved organic matter on the environmental fate of metals, nanoparticles, and colloids, Environmental Science \& Technology, vol. 45 (2011), pp. 3196--3201 [es103992s], [doi] .
6. Zhang, T. and Hsu-Kim, H., Photolytic degradation of methylmercury enhanced by binding to natural organic ligands, Nature Geoscience, vol. 3 no. 7 (2010), pp. 473--476 [NGEO892], [doi] .
7. Ruhl, L.; Vengosh, A.; Dwyer, G. S.; Hsu-Kim, H.; Deonarine, A., Environmental impacts of the coal ash spill in Kingston, Tennessee: An 18-month survey, Environmental Science \& Technology, vol. 44 no. 24 (2010), pp. 9272--9278 [es1026739], [doi] .