What We Work On
Water problems are chemistry problems. Whether the question is where groundwater contamination came from, how to remove salts and metals from water, or how to recover critical elements like lithium from brines, the answer usually lives at an interface — where minerals, membranes, and electrodes meet water. Our group uses electrochemistry to answer these questions quantitatively, producing results that inform remediation decisions, treatment technology design, and environmental risk assessment.
Three questions organize our work:
- Where does contamination come from, and how does it behave? We study the redox chemistry of manganese and iron oxides to determine contaminant sources, predict fate and transport in groundwater, and evaluate remediation approaches.
- How do we treat water and recover what it carries? We develop and evaluate electrochemical desalination and membrane separation technologies for water treatment, selective ion recovery, and lithium extraction.
- How is AI changing engineering research and education? We study the roles large language models play in scientific work — from literature analysis to proposal review — and how engineering courses should adapt.
Principal Investigator
Christopher Gorski is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and an affiliate of the Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE) and the Materials Research Institute (MRI). He has been at Penn State since 2012; before that, he was a post-doc at Eawag in Switzerland (2010–2012) and a PhD student at the University of Iowa (2005–2009).
He has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications on contaminant redox chemistry, environmental electrochemistry, and water treatment; serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Environmental Science & Technology; and received an NSF CAREER Award. His CV is available here (ORCID: 0000-0002-5363-2904). If you are interested in joining the group or collaborating, please email Dr. Gorski.
Teaching Highlights
- Led the proposal and approval of Penn State's new B.S. in Environmental Engineering (approved 2026, first offered Fall 2026).
- Teaches across the environmental engineering curriculum, including Introduction to Environmental Engineering (CE 370), Water and Wastewater Treatment (CE 371), Environmental Aquatic Chemistry (CE 570), and Environmental Electrochemistry (CE 556).
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Harry West Teaching Award (2026).
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Choice Teaching Award (2025 and 2026).
- Penn State Engineering Alumni Society Outstanding Advising Award (2023).
Service Highlights
- Editorial Advisory Board, Environmental Science & Technology (2020–present).
- Area Coordinator for Environmental Engineering, Penn State CEE (2023–present; 2020–2021).
- AEESP Grand Challenges Task Force — Data Science Team (2025–present).
- Symposium organizer on aquatic redox chemistry and environmental electrochemistry for the American Chemical Society, Electrochemical Society, and Goldschmidt conferences; proposal panelist for NSF, DOE, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Consulting & Expert Witness Services
Dr. Gorski is available for consulting and expert witness engagements in his areas of expertise.
Expert witness & litigation support. Independent expert opinions, technical reports, and deposition and trial testimony on matters involving groundwater and soil contamination, contaminant fate and transport, geochemical site conditions, and the technical basis of remediation approaches.
Technical consulting. Independent evaluation and due diligence of water treatment, desalination, membrane separation, and lithium-extraction technologies; review of technical documents, data, and performance claims; and advisory work on environmental chemistry questions for firms, agencies, and investors.
Inquiries: gorski@psu.edu.
Publications
Full profiles: Google Scholar · OpenAlex
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Research Group
Liang Cheng, PhD Student in Environmental Engineering
Liang joined the group in Fall 2025. She studies the redox reactivity of manganese oxides, including their roles in chromium oxidation and contaminant fate in groundwater.
Timothy Hudak Jr., PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering
Tim began his PhD in Fall 2022. He studies redox-mediated electrochemical desalination and separation technologies.
Chenghan Xie, PhD Student
Chenghan is co-advised with Prof. Bruce Logan. He studies membranes used with asymmetric electrolytes for electrochemical separations.
Group Alumni
Ph.D.: Mahmudul Hasan (2026) · Vineeth Pothanamkandathil (2024) · Jonathan Boualavong (2023) · Yingchi Cheng (2022) · Jenelle Fortunato (2020) · Prachi Joshi (2018) · Mohammad Rahimi (2017)
M.S.: Anthony Pompa (2025) · Vineeth Pothanamkandathil (2019) · Sydney Stewart (2017) · S. Sarah Cronk (2016) · Prachi Joshi (2015) · Rebecca Edwards (2015)
Post-docs: Paolo Benavides (2024–2026) · Le Shi (2022) · Gongde Chen (2021) · Moon Son (2019) · Taeyoung Kim (2018) · Fubo Luan (2017) · Xiuping Zhu (2016)
Group alumni have gone on to careers in academia, industry, and national laboratories.