Zhongjie Yu 
Principal Investigator
zjyu@illinois.edu
​Google Scholar

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My research interest is at the intersection of watershed hydrology and nitrogen biogeochemistry. I am also interested in developing and applying novel stable isotope techniques to trace coupled water and nitrogen transport in hydrologic systems. In addition, I teach courses in Aquatic Biogeochemistry, Soil and Water Conservation, and Topics in Isotope Hydro-Biogeochemistry.

Corey Mitchell
Senior Research Specialist in Agriculture
Laboratory Manager
cmitche@illinois.edu
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Corey has more than 20 years of experience in measuring and analyzing nutrient cycling in midwestern agricultural systems.

Nora Danaher
Isotope Research Specialist/Lab Manager
norapd2@illinois.edu

Nora joined the Yu Lab in August 2022 as an Undergraduate researcher. She now serves as our lab manager, keeping the lab running smoothly and taking primary responsibility for isotopic analyses.

John Green
Senior Research Specialist in Agriculture
Field Technician
jmgree@illinois.edu

Yinchao Hu
Ph.D. Student
yinchao2@illinois.edu

Yinchao’s dissertation research combines hydrometric/agronomic measurements and nitrate isotopes to characterize the sources and transport of nitrate in tile-drained corn-soybean rotation systems.

Minghui Sha
Ph.D. Student
msha4@illinois.edu

Minghui’s current work focuses on using water age modeling and nitrate isotope biogeochemistry to quantify the reactive transport of nitrogen at the watershed scale.

Carlos Guacho
Ph.D. Student
ceg7@illinois.edu

Carlos is interested in using continuous in-stream nitrate sensing, water isotopes, and watershed-scale agronomical trials to examine mechanisms that drive nutrient loss from tile-drained agricultural watersheds.

Annette Vasquez
M.S. Student
akv6@illinois.edu

Annette is currently conducting research to quantify dissolved organic nitrogen and carbon export from agricultural watersheds.