Dr. Lianfa Song received his BS and MS degrees from Peking University, China, in 1982 and 1984, respectively. He went to the United States to study for his PhD degree in UCLA in 1990 and obtained the degree in March 1993.  After two and half years as a postdoctoral research associate in UCLA and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, he worked an assistant professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in 1996 and an associate professor in 2002 at National University of Singapore (NUS).  He became an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas Tech University in September 2007 and was promoted to full professor in 2013. 

Dr. Song's main research interests include membrane processes, colloidal phenomena, and physical and chemical processes for water quality enhancement.  In the last a few years, he focused his research on the improvement of energy efficiency of reverse osmosis processes (RO) on water treatment and reclamation.  He also extended his study to the pressure retarded osmosis for harnessing the salinity gradient energy.  Dr. Song became a board certified environmental engineering member in 2011 by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.  He is a member of the North American Membrane Society (NAMS), the International Water Association (IWA), and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).