Kathryn R Mahaffey Lifetime Achievement Award

It is with tremendous pleasure and privilege that we announce Dr. Xinbin Feng as the 16th ICMGP2024 recipient of the prestigious Dr. Kathryn R. Mahaffey Lifetime Achievement Award, as nominated by Dr C. Jerry Lin, Ph.D., P.E.

Dr. Feng’s scientific contribution as a scientist, character as a scholar, determination in advancing knowledge as a researcher, impact as an educator, leadership as a community member and service as an administrator are exceptional by any standard in our research community. In awarding him the Lifetime Achievement Award is a strong testament in celebrating Dr. Kathryn R. Mahaffey’s legacy, and an adequate recognition of a distinguished colleague who has exemplified the very values carried by this award.

He is currently Professor of Geochemistry and serves as the Director General of the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guiyang China, a research organization that houses more than 350 research scientists and 700 graduate students. He has devoted his entire professional career to better understand the source, transport, biogeochemical cycling and pollution mitigation of environmental mercury. In his 30+ years of his research career as a research scientist, he has authored or co-authored 428 peer-reviewed articles in the best journals of our profession, which have been cited for more than 25,000 times (h-index = 91, Google Scholar); and has led 35 major multi-disciplinary research projects (totaling more than $20M US dollars of grant awards) on the emission, migration, contamination and health risks of mercury. In this process, he had graduated 52 PhD and 22 MS students, and trained 30 postdoctoral researchers who continue contributing to the creation of knowledge, development of solutions and formulation of policies pertinent to environmental mercury in academia, industries, and governmental agencies.

Dr. Feng’s commitment and impact to the mercury research community is reflected by his long-term service on the Scientific Steering Committees of the ICMGP, International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment (ICHMET) and International Conference on the Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements (ICBTE), as well as serving as the Conference Chair of the 2009 ICMGP and the 2014 ICHMET. Overall, Dr Feng is a wonderful person to work and interact with, and his track record in terms of his scientific contribution, community engagement, and research leadership makes him an excellent recipient of the Kathryn R Mahaffey Lifetime Achievement Award.

Please join the Executive Committee and Scientific Steering Committee of the 16th ICMGP Cape Town, South Africa in congratulating Dr Xinbin Feng on receiving his well-deserved Kathryn R Mahaffey Lifetime Achievement Award.