Dr. AixinHou received herPh.Din Microbial Ecology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with part of her research performed at Ghent University, Belgium, and earned a B.S. in Microbiology from Peking University. She is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science at Louisiana State University, where she teaches Intro to Environmental Science and Aquatic Pollution. Before joining LSU, she was awarded an Eco-Frontier Fellowship by the Japanese Ministry of Environment, and worked in the Japanese National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences for two years, where her research focused on microbial production of greenhouse gases in agro-ecosystems. At LSU, her research interests have expanded to include coastal wetlands and estuaries of Louisiana, focusing on the ecology and evolution of pathogen indicator microbes and pathogenic vibrios in aquatic ecosystems, and the relationship between microbial biodiversity and biogeochemical processes in wetlands in the context of anthropogenically induced environmental issues. She has garnered as both PI and Co-PI, a total of more than $4.2 million in grant funds from funding agencies including NSF, NASA, NOAA, DOI, EPA, and GoMRI since 2005 when she started her academic career at LSU. She is a recipient of Phi Kappa Phi junior faculty research award, LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation Teaching Award, and the Pearson Sustainable Solutions Award.