Lin Li
Tennessee State University, TN·Earth & Environmental Science
Two kinds of questions run through these projects. One is environmental: what happens to newer "forever chemicals" once they reach soil?
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
Education Research
- Topics
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
forever chemicals
GenX
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Aug 2031
What they work on
- Measure how the replacement PFAS F-53B and GenX sorb to, desorb from and degrade in soils, to understand their persistence and mobility.
- Investigate how plants and microbes affect the transport and accumulation of F-53B and GenX in the vadose zone, the unsaturated soil above groundwater.
- Build fate-and-transport models of F-53B and GenX, verified with experimental data, to predict their long-term environmental impacts.
- Evaluate how a staged engineering curriculum with AI-based adaptive feedback, a winter session and mentoring affects student performance, engineering identity, self-efficacy and retention.
- Identify the skills and characteristics that support research capacity at HBCUs, and pilot a "Grow Your Own" training model for research administrators and scientists across five partner institutions.
More about the research
The other is educational: how can Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) better prepare and keep STEM students and grow their research capacity? Tennessee State University is the home base for both. The environmental work is a laboratory and modeling study, and the education projects design and evaluate programs for students, faculty and staff.
Why it matters
Knowing how F-53B and GenX move, persist and break down in soil could help regulators set rules on their production and use. It could also improve the treatment of PFAS-contaminated soil that threatens groundwater and drinking water. The education projects could give HBCUs evidence-based models for keeping engineering students enrolled and for building research capacity.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Implementation Project: Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Research-Based Experiential Learning into STEM Curriculum to Enhance Education and Student Retention
NSF · Sep 2026 – Aug 2031
Collaborative Research: Ideas Lab: The HBCU Ujima Collective: Building Research Capacity at HBCUs through a Grow Your Own Research Corps Model
NSF · Sep 2024 – Aug 2027
EXCELLENCE-IN-RESEARCH: FATE AND TRANSPORT OF EMERGING PFASS-F-53B AND GENX IN SOIL
NSF · Sep 2024 – Aug 2027
Closest labs
Timothy Schroeder
Bennington College, VT·Earth & Environmental Science
Characterize how PFAS ("forever chemicals") spread from contamination sources through groundwater, surface water, soils, vegetation and wildlife at Vermont field research sites.
Roger Tipton
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure PFAS concentrations, including the newest generation of these compounds, in Arctic Ocean seawater from the surface to 3,000 meters, using samples collected on an icebreaker transect from Alaska to Norway.
Daqian Jiang
University of Alabama, AL·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Characterize how glyphosate breaks down during electrokinetic biodegradation (EK-Bio), using electric fields to boost soil microbes, under varying environmental and operating conditions in three representative soils.
The school
Tennessee State University: 1 labs on PI Pages, $35M a year on research, 56 research doctorates a year.
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