Researcher biography

Prof Guo joined the Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), renamed as the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology in July 2021, at The University of Queensland in 2013. He is currently the ACWEB Deputy Director - Research. His research focuses on effective integration of process engineering, environmental microbiology and environmental biotechnology to develop innovative and sustainable solutions to achieve high-levels of contaminant removal from water or wastewater. He is also an active researcher in environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). As a pioneer, Prof Guo and his team discovered that non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals/chemicals contribute to the spread of AMR, which has substantially augmented our understating of the causes of AMR. His ground-breaking findings have been covered by many mainstream media outlets, including ABC News, The Daily Mail, Science Daily and The Courier-Mail, via over 100 press stories. He has to date won over $14M in government, industry and university research funding including ARC Discovery and Linkage, mostly as the lead Chief Investigator. He has published more than 200 fully refereed papers both in multidisciplinary journals such as PNAS and Nature Communications, and specialised journals including The ISME Journal, Water Research and Environmental Science & Technology. His research output and achievements have been recognized through national and international awards or fellowship, including 2013 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) and 2017 Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. He is an Editor of the Journal of Hazardous Materials, Water Science & Technology, and an Associate Editor of Water Research.

Featured projects Duration
Eliminating opportunistic pathogens from premise plumbing biofilms in healthcare facilities
Metro North Hospital and Health Service
20222024
Roles of emerging pollutants in spreading antimicrobial resistance
Australian Research Council
20242026
Combating the transmission of coronavirus in urban water systems through novel disinfection
Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowships
20202023
Nanoparticles-induced horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes
Australian Research Council
2020
Water-borne pathogens (Legionella and nontuberculous mycobacterium) in premise plumbing: Biofilm ecology and control strategies
20172023
Antibiotic resistance in the urban water cycle
The University of Queensland
2016
The spread of antimicrobial resistance caused by non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals
Australian Research Council
20162022
Simultaneous dissolved methane and nitrogen removal
Australian Research Council
20202023
Methane bioconversion to value-added liquid chemicals and in situ applications
Australian Research Council
20182025
MERINO: Maximizing energy recovery through innovative nitrogen removal
20162021
Understanding of archaeal ammonia oxidation: kinetics, physiology and application to biological nitrogen removal from wastewater
Australian Research Council
20132016
Efficient disinfection of coronavirus in aerosol and on material surfaces
2020
Novel disinfection to combat antibiotic resistance
Australian Research Council
20222024
Combating the Spread of Antibiotic Resistance in Urban Water Systems
ARC Future Fellowship
20172021

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