Xing-Fang Li

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Xing-Fang Li is a toxicologist whose research involves the discovery and identification of water contaminants through the development of new analytical technologies, as well as the engineering of solutions to ensure safe drinking water. Li is a professor at the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Alberta in Canada. She is a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Analytical and Environmental Toxicology, and was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021. [1] [2]

Contents

Career

Li completed a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Zhejiang University (1983), a Master of Science in Environmental Chemistry from the Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1986), a Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry from Brock University in Canada (1990), and a PhD in Environmental/Analytical Chemistry from the University of British Columbia (1995). [3] Li completed postdoctoral research at the University of Alberta (1994-1997), and later returned from industry to join as a professor at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry in 2001. [3]

Li has published over 150 academic publications, which have been cited over 10,000 times, resulting in an h-index and i10-index of 57 and 143 respectively. [4] Previously, research from Li's lab found that measuring levels of the common artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium (Ace) is a way to determine the concentration of urine in pools. [5] [6] [7] Their research found Ace in all 31 pools and hot tubs tested in two Canadian cities between May and August 2014, indicating that large amounts of human urine can be found in an average swimming pool. [5] [6] [7]

In 2020, Li received the Chemical Institute of Canada's Ricardo Aroca Award for "a distinguished contribution to the field of analytical chemistry while working in Canada." [3]

Selected academic publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saccharin</span> Chemical compound

Saccharin is an artificial sweetener with effectively no nutritional value. It is about 550 times as sweet as sucrose but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations. Saccharin is used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, cookies, and especially for masking bitter taste of some medicines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acesulfame potassium</span> Calorie-free sugar substitute

Acesulfame potassium, also known as acesulfame K or Ace K, is a synthetic calorie-free sugar substitute often marketed under the trade names Sunett and Sweet One. In the European Union, it is known under the E number E950. It was discovered accidentally in 1967 by German chemist Karl Clauss at Hoechst AG. In chemical structure, acesulfame potassium is the potassium salt of 6-methyl-1,2,3-oxathiazine-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide. It is a white crystalline powder with molecular formula C
4
H
4
KNO
4
S
and a molecular weight of 201.24 g/mol.

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The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Royal Institute of Chemistry, the Faraday Society, and the Society for Analytical Chemistry with a new Royal Charter and the dual role of learned society and professional body. At its inception, the Society had a combined membership of 34,000 in the UK and a further 8,000 abroad. The headquarters of the Society are at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. It also has offices in Thomas Graham House in Cambridge where RSC Publishing is based. The Society has offices in the United States at the University City Science Center, Philadelphia, in both Beijing and Shanghai, China and Bangalore, India.

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Monochloramine, often called chloramine, is the chemical compound with the formula NH2Cl. Together with dichloramine (NHCl2) and nitrogen trichloride (NCl3), it is one of the three chloramines of ammonia. It is a colorless liquid at its melting point of −66 °C (−87 °F), but it is usually handled as a dilute aqueous solution, in which form it is sometimes used as a disinfectant. Chloramine is too unstable to have its boiling point measured.

Urine-indicator dye is a mythical substance that is supposed to be able to react with urine to form a colored cloud in a swimming pool or hot tub, thus indicating the location of people who are urinating while they are in the water. A 2015 report from the National Swimming Pool Foundation called this "the most common pool myth of all time", with nearly half of Americans surveyed by researchers believing that the dye existed.

Swimming pool sanitation is the process of ensuring healthy conditions in swimming pools. Proper sanitation is needed to maintain the visual clarity of water and to prevent the transmission of infectious waterborne diseases.

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A swimming pool service technician, known colloquially as a pool cleaner, is a tradesperson who cleans swimming pools and services major pool equipment such as pumps, motors, and filters.

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References

  1. "Xing-Fang Li". Canada Research Chairs.
  2. "PRESS RELEASE | THE RSC PRESENTS THE CLASS OF 2021 | The Royal Society of Canada". rsc-src.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  3. 1 2 3 "2020 Ricardo Aroca Award". The Chemical Institute of Canada. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  4. "Xing-Fang Li". scholar.google.ca. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  5. 1 2 "How much pee is in the pool? New Alberta research measures water 'sweetness' | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  6. 1 2 Jmaiff Blackstock, Lindsay K.; Wang, Wei; Vemula, Sai; Jaeger, Benjamin T.; Li, Xing-Fang (2017-04-11). "Sweetened Swimming Pools and Hot Tubs". Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 4 (4): 149–153. doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.7b00043. S2CID   99475035.
  7. 1 2 "Artificial sweetener reveals how much pee is in the average pool". PBS NewsHour. 2017-03-03. Retrieved 2022-04-04.