Biography

Dr. Jongho Lee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Primarily using membrane-based technologies, he is interested in solving a wide range of problems in the water and energy nexus.

Dr. Lee earned his PhD from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2014). Before he came to UBC, Dr. Lee was a postdoctoral researcher in the Dept. of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. He received his B.S (2003) and M.S (2007) from the Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in South Korea.

Dr. Lee was awarded New Frontier Research Funds (2021) for developing artificial trees to build extreme-weather-resilient cities.  As an active researcher in the field of membrane science, Dr. Lee is a sole Canadian member of early career editorial board in Journal of Membrane Science.

Research Interests

Membranes, Nanoporous Media, Electrokinetics, Resource Recovery (energy, biochemicals, metals), Desalination, Water/Wastewater Treatment

Courses

CIVL 215 Fluid Mechanics I

CIVL 406 Water Treatment and Waste Management

CIVL 565 Physical-Chemical Treatment Processes

Awards & Recognitions

• 2015, Best Presentation Award, Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Conference
• 2014, Best Poster Award, MIT Water Night
• 2012, Korean Honor Scholarship, The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United States of America
• 2010, Grand Prize on Micro/Nano Forum, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• 2008, Pappalardo Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Student Research Opportunities

For students interested in research assistantship opportunities, please visit Dr. Lee’s research webpage and see the tab of Prospective Students.

Publications

Selected Publications

• D. Saabas and J. Lee, “Recovery of ammonia from simulated membrane contactor effluent using bipolar membrane electrodialysis.”, Journal of Membrane Science, 644, 120081, 2022.
• J. Lee, “Perspectives and design considerations of capillary-driven artificial trees for fast dewatering processes.”, Scientific Reports, 11, 8631, 2021.
• Y. Wang, J. Lee, J.R. Werber, and M. Elimelech, “Capillary-driven desalination in a synthetic mangrove.”, Science Advances, 6(8), eaax5253, 2020.
• C. Li, X. Li, X. Du, T. Tong, T.Y. Cath, and J. Lee, “Antiwetting and Antifouling Janus Membrane for Desalination of Saline Oily Wastewater by Membrane Distillation.”, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 11(20), 18456 – 18465, 2019.
• X. Li, A. Dutta, Q. Dong, S. Rollings-Scattergood, and J. Lee, “Dissolved Methane Harvesting Using Omniphobic Membranes for Anaerobically Treated Wastewaters”., Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 6(4), 228 – 234, 2019.
• A. Deshmukh and J. Lee, “Membrane desalination performance governed by molecular reflection at the liquid-vapor interface.”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 140, 1006 – 1022, 2019.
• A. P. Straub, N.Y. Yip, S. Lin, J. Lee, and M. Elimelech, “Harvesting Low-grade Heat Energy using Thermo-osmotic Vapor Transport through Nanoporous Membranes.”, Nature Energy, 1(7), 1 – 6, 2016.
• J. Lee, T. Laoui, and R. Karnik, “Nanofluidic Transport Governed by the Liquid/Vapour Interface.”, Nature Nanotechnology, 9, 317, 2014.
• M. Boutilier, J. Lee, V. Chambers, V. Venkatesh, and R. Karnik, “Water Filtration Using Plant Xylem.”, PLOS One, 9(2), e89934, 2014.

For a full list of my publications, visit my profile on: