UND civil engineer appointed as an editor of flagship journal

Associate Professor ‘Frank’ Xiao will help edit Journal of Hazardous Materials, a Top 10 publication in environmental sciences 

The Journal of Hazardous Materials has an impact factor of 10.588. That means the journal’s research papers get cited by other researchers more than 10 times each, on average, during a certain 12-month time frame after publication.

And that’s high enough to rank the journal No. 10 out of 274 in its field of environmental sciences, the journal’s website reports.

Recently, UND’s Civil Engineering Associate Professor Feng “Frank” Xiao, associate professor of civil engineering, was appointed as an editor of the Journal of Hazardous Materials. This makes him one of the few faculty members in the North Dakota University System to be so honored by a flagship environmental/chemical journal.

“Dr. Xiao is an outstanding researcher, and the college is very proud of the work he is doing,” said Brian Tande, Dean of the UND College of Engineering & Mines.

“We are thankful that his accomplishments are being recognized with this appointment as an editor of such a high-impact journal.”

The journal received about 14,000 submissions in 2021, and its current acceptance rate for submitted articles is less than 15 percent.

Xiao is known for his research in water treatment and environmental remediation. His research focuses on water and soil quality engineering, including disinfection byproducts and black carbon.

Currently he is leading an interdisciplinary team that’s addressing questions in the following research areas:

• the fate and transport of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in aquatic and soil environments

• new and cost-effective water treatment and soil remediation technologies

• new analytical tools and non-target identification by high resolution mass spectrometry.

Xiao is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the EPA STAR Early Career Award, National Science Foundation CAREER Award, Dean’s Outstanding Faculty Award, and UND Foundation/McDermott Faculty Award for Excellence in Research and/or Creative Activity. He also served since 2021 as an Associate Editor of Journal of Environmental Engineering (ASCE).

“I am excited to be part of an efficient JHM editorial team that promotes quick and useful peer reviews, making sure only the best research disseminates to the environmental community,” Xaio said.

“With a training background in water and wastewater treatment, environmental organic chemistry, and analytical chemistry, I am passionate about, and have been fully devoted to, emerging areas of environmental engineering and science. This is a valuable chance to give back to the academic community by working with such a well-respected journal.”