Cheng Peng: A Dedicated “Soil Doctor” at ECUST
Cheng Peng, an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Resources and Environmental Engineering from ECUST, focuses on ecological restoration and soil remediation. She obtained her doctoral degree from Zhejiang University in 2016 and has been selected for several key talent programs in Shanghai.
She has led more than ten national and provincial-level projects, including three projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and two subprojects of the National Key R&D Program of China. She has also published more than 60 papers in international journals as first or corresponding author and holds over ten authorized invention patents. In 2026, she won the first prize in the Shanghai Teaching Competition for Young College Teachers (Applied Natural Sciences Category).
Building high-quality courses through teaching innovation, Peng abandoned traditional cramming teaching and developed an original four-level progressive teaching system covering theoretical exploration and engineering practice. She integrated physical teaching materials, AI-assisted learning, virtual simulation technologies, field investigations and community-based activities, leading students to conduct practical research in enterprises, polluted sites and communities. This innovative teaching mode transformed abstract theories into practical projects, creating high-quality and student-oriented courses. Under her guidance, students have won numerous national and provincial awards in competitions such as the Challenge Cup and National Energy Conservation Competition.
Adhering to the philosophy of integrating research with talent cultivation, Peng focuses on national ecological security and tackles key technical problems in soil pollution remediation, using synchrotron radiation facilities to investigate the migration mechanisms of emerging pollutants. Her soil remediation materials have been applied in engineering demonstration projects in multiple regions. She holds regular academic seminars to guide students’ research work and relieve their academic pressure, promoting their all-round development. She has independently supervised or co-supervised more than 50 postgraduate students. Her students have published more than 40 papers as first authors in journals such as Environmental Science & Technology and won various honors.
Peng also organizes academic salons and overseas exchange programs to broaden students’ global horizons, and the classes she instructs have earned multiple excellent collective honors. She believes all awards are new starting points. In the future, she will continue to advance teaching reform and ecological research, encouraging more students to contribute to ecological restoration and sustainable development.