At the invitation of the Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health (KLUEH), Professor Gary S. Sayler from University of Tennessee (UT), Professor Jie Zhuang from the Institute of Applied Ecology and Professor Mindong Bai from Xiamen University visited IUE on Nov. 2, 2014.

They had a round-table discussion with Professor Yong-Guan Zhu, Director of KLUEH and other IUE research staff. Professor Sayler introduced the recent research progress on environmental biotechnology in the Joint Institute for Biological Sciences of UT and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and exchanged ideas about characteristics of methane sources and its relationship with microbe, genes of environmental antibiotic resistance, bio-fuel cells and environment contaminant monitoring. Professor Sayler and Director Yongguan Zhu both agreed to enhance bilateral research collaboration in the future.

Gary S. Sayler, founding director of the UT Center for Environmental Biotechnology, is a Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, Adjunct Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and director of the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Biological Sciences. Dr. Sayler has over 35 years of experience in multidisciplinary laboratory and field environmental research and biodegradation of organic pollutants such as poly-nuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), and trichloroethylene (TCE).