Dr Wei Wei obtained her PhD degree in Environmental Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (China) in 2018 and awarded an Outstanding PhD Award from Chinese Education Department. She joined University of Technology Sydney in 2019, and currently is an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer at School of Civil and Environmental Engineering of UTS.

Dr Wei has been working in the field of environmental biotechnology, waste management, environmental toxicology and green chemistry, particularly the interface among process engineering, microbiology, ecotoxicology and mathematical modeling. Her research focuses on: (1) biowaste-to-energy; (2) wastewater/sludge/food waste/microalgae treatment; (3) micro/nano-plastics toxicology; (4) antibiotics resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment; (5) resource recovery and utilization. Specifically, she is a worldwide pioneer in revolutionizing the science and practice of urban waste management.

Since 2019, she has been awarded 12 competitive research grants totaling over $3.9 million, including 3 ARC Linkage Projects, ARC Discovery grants, ARC DECRA Fellowship.

She has published 1 invited book, 8 invited book chapters, 180+ Q1 papers and 9 patents. Over 92% of her SCI papers were published in top 10% journal, including Nature Water, Nature Reviews Clean Technology, Cell Reports, Advanced Materials, Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research. She has contributed 68 SCI papers as first or corresponding author, including 20+ in Nature Water, Cell Reports, Advanced Materials, Environmental Science & Technology, and Water Research. Her publications have attracted >13,250 citations with an H-index of 64 in Scopus. Dr Wei has been continuously named as one of Stanford's Top 2% Scientists Worldwide from 2021 to 2025. She is ranked #2 globally in biowaste-to-liquid energy (T.67086) in both scholar outputs and citation (SciVal).

Dr Wei’s achievement has been recognized by 15+ awards, e.g., 2026 James J. Morgan Early Career Award (Honorable Mention, American Chemical Society), 2026 Fenner Medal (Australian Academy of Science, finalist), 2025 NSW Premier's Prizes for Science & Engineering (Finalist), 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher ("Oscars” of Australian Science, Finalist), 2024 Women of Colour in STEM Award (finalist), 2024 Highly Ranked Scholar (ScholarGPS), 2022 UTS Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for ECR Research Excellence (Winner), etc.

Her work has been featured in numerous Australian and international media outlets, e.g., Nature, SBS Australia, Australian Museum, Inside Water, CityHub, STEM Sisters, MAGNIFY, UTS News, etc.

Dr Wei currently serves as an Editor for Journal of Environmental Management (Q1, IF 8.4), Associate Editor for Journal of Cleaner Production (Q1, IF = 11.1), and Editorial Early Career Board of Environmental Science & Technology (Q1, IF=11.3). She also works as Management Committee Member of the International Water Association (IWA, Sludge Management Specialist Group and Treatment of Industrial Waters Specialist Group), Board Member of the Australasian Practical Zero Emissions Society (APZES), and Research Committee Member of CEE in UTS. She has organized 3 international academic conferences as Organizing Committee and Co-Chair.