Photo taken in Jan 2025. Left to right: Mahadi, Tuba, Kate, Jenna, Shelby, Abbie, Tessa, Caden, and Liangcheng.
Dr. Liangcheng Yang. Dr. Yang is a Professor of Environmental Health and Sustainability, in the Dept. of Health Sciences and the Dept. of Agriculture. Dr. Yang works on air quality, anaerobic digestion and bioenergy.
Tessa VanNatta. Tessa joined the group in spring 2025. She works on nutrients analysis and biogas production from cover crops.
Jenna Brandt. Jenna joined the group in spring 2025. She works on waste and energy management, and nutrient reuse for a vertical farming system.
Abbie Gorsage. Abbie joined the group in spring 2024. She works on air quality monitoring in environmental justice areas.
Mahadi Hasan (co-advised). Mahadi joined the group in the spring of 2024 as a M.S. student. He works on cover crop and nutrient conservation.
Caden Miller. Caden joined the group in the fall of 2023. He worked on cover crop AD.
Tuba Yasmin. Tuba Yasmin joined the group in the fall of 2023 as a M.S. student. She works on VFA production from arrested anaerobic digestion of cover crops. Tuba was selected as the Illinois State University October 2024 GradBird Scholar.
Shelby Stoner. Shelby joined the group in the fall of 2023 as a M.S. student. She works on nutrient cycling in anaerobic digestion of cover crops, soybean stalk, and corn stover.
Group Alumni
Michael Moklak. Michael joined the group in the summer of 2023. He worked on pennycress anaerobic digestion. Michael was selected as the college outstanding student researcher in 2024.
Lucas Lamont. Lucas was a Ph.D. student. He joined the group in 2020. He worked on the anaerobic digestion of cover crops.
Gabriela Ornelas. Gabriela joined the group in 2020. She worked on N95 respirator filtration. Gabriela won the 2021 Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs (AEHAP) Student Research Competition.
Rowan Carroll. Rowan joined the group in 2020. She worked on nutrient recovery from wastewater. Rowan won won the 2021 AEHAP Student Research Competition.
Trevar Moran. Trevar joined the research group in 2019. He worked on anaerobic digestion and nutrient recovery. Trevar was selected as the Bone Student Scholar in 2020.
Kelsey Fiddes. Kelsey joined the group in 2019. She worked on the environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation.
Summer Corsolini. Summer joined the research group in 2017. She worked on a new anaerobic digester design and biogas cleaning. Summer was selected as the college outstanding student researcher in 2019.
Rico Guevaro. Rico joined the group in 2017. He worked on biomass analysis.
Alisha Kottke. Alisha joined the research group in 2015. She worked on a cartridge anaerobic digestion system and was selected as the college outstanding student researcher in 2017.
Matt Johnson. Matt Joined the group in 2016. He worked on biogas cleaning and upgrading.
Alec Dietrich. Alec joined the research group in 2015. He worked on developing an affordable technology to recover failed anaerobic digestion units.
Zhonghua Zheng (co-advised): Zhonghua was a M.S. student at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He worked on impedance-based moisture sensor development for biofilters.