Rate My Professor Jianhua Guo

Professor Jianhua Guo is a Professor and UQ Amplify Fellow in the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (ACWEB) at the University of Queensland's School of Chemical Engineering. He joined the Advanced Water Management Centre, renamed ACWEB in 2021, in 2013 and is currently the Deputy Director - Research. Prof Guo earned his Doctoral Diploma from Harbin Institute of Technology. His research focuses on integrating process engineering, environmental microbiology, and biotechnology to create sustainable solutions for removing contaminants from water and wastewater at high efficiency. As a leading researcher in the environmental aspects of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), he and his team pioneered findings that non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals and chemicals drive AMR proliferation, influencing global perspectives on its origins. These discoveries have received extensive media coverage in ABC News, Science Daily, and The Courier-Mail, among over 100 outlets.

Having secured over AU$14 million in research grants as lead Chief Investigator, including multiple ARC Discovery and Linkage projects, Prof Guo has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in top journals such as PNAS, Nature Communications, Water Research, and Environmental Science & Technology. Standout publications encompass "Metagenomic analysis reveals wastewater treatment plants as hotspots of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements" (2017), "Antiepileptic drug carbamazepine promotes horizontal transfer of plasmid-borne multi-antibiotic resistance genes within and across bacterial genera" (2019), "Both silver ions and silver nanoparticles facilitate the horizontal transfer of plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance genes" (2020), "Roles of micro/nanoplastics in the spread of antimicrobial resistance through conjugative gene transfer" (2025), and "Methanoperedenaceae archaea: a 20-year research journey" (2026). His achievements are honored by the 2013 ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA), the 2017 ARC Future Fellowship, and the UQ Amplify Fellowship. Prof Guo contributes to the field as Editor for Journal of Hazardous Materials and Water Science & Technology, and Associate Editor for Water Research. He supervises graduate students and engages in international collaborations addressing AMR and advanced wastewater technologies.