Academic Staff

Leading a Health and Environment Advancement Lab (HEAL), Professor Jin and his team conduct interdisciplinary research at the nexus of environmental chemistry, microbiology, toxicology, and data science to address planetary health challenges. He was named to the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists’ 2025 “40 Under 40,” received the 2025 Asian Young Aerosol Scientist Award, and received the 2026 James J. Morgan Early Career Award.

Research contributions underpinning these honors include:
(1) Air Pollution and Human Health
- discovering viable drug-resistant fungal pathogens in urban air closely related to clinical strains (featured in ACS embargoed press release and covered by global media reports);
- quantifying the toxic contribution and sources of Gram-negative bacterial endotoxins in PM2.5 (featured in Nature Research Highlights);
- revealing how molecular evolution pathways during black carbon formation drive the coupled evolution of optical properties and toxic effects, improving climate and health risk assessment;
- developing a large language model to predict interactions between airborne organic pollutants and human proteins for mechanism screening.

(2) Marine Pollution and Wildlife Health
- developing a Chinese white dolphin cell line, enabling quantification of algal toxin and anthropogenic pollutant contributions to marine mammal health risks;
- establishing the first full-length 18S rRNA reference database for toxic and harmful algal species and and elucidating seasonal succession patterns and environmental drivers of toxin-producing algae.

(3) Solid Waste and EcoHealth
- constructing a global map of plastisphere bacteria to advance understanding of impacts on ecosystem function, climate, and human–plant–animal health (The Innovation’s Most Popular Paper Award and Best Paper Award; Nature invitation to write a commentary; BBC Wildlife Interview; RTHK interview);
- Coining the integrated “microplastome” framework and the concept of the atmospheric plastisphere and its planetary health risks.

Nathanael is Co-Chair of the International Medical Geology Association’s One Health Working Group, a Topic Editor for ACS ES&T Toxicology, an Editorial Board Member of Environmental Science & Technology and ACS Environmental Au, and a Guest Editor for Environment International and Environmental Science & Technology. In 2024, he received the Outstanding Reviewer Award from National Science Review.

• Bachelor of Science, City University of Hong Kong
• Master of Philosophy, City University of Hong Kong
• Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland