Hering was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2015 for contributions to understanding and practice of removal of inorganic contaminants from drinking water.
Hering grew up in New York City.[1] She studied chemistry at Cornell University and graduated in 1979.[2][3] She was a summer intern at Mobil. She joined Harvard University for her graduate studies, earning a master's in chemistry in 1981, and began graduate work in organic chemistry.[1] Hering realized that she preferred environmental sciences and moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for her graduate studies.[1] She completed her PhD thesis. "The Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Copper Complexation in Aquatic Systems" in 1988.[4] Her supervisor, François Morel, described her research as "elegant work on the surprisingly slow kinetics of some reactions between trace metals and organic complexing agents in natural water".[5] She described the aquatic chemistry associated with the preparation of Aquil, an artificial algal culture, and the coordination of transition metals in seawater.[6][7] At MIT, Hering met Werner Stumm, who offered her a postdoctoral position at EAWAG.[1]
Research and career
Hering joined the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG) as a research fellow. She coordinated several scientific exchanges and managed international conferences. She co-authored the textbook Principles and Applications of Aquatic Chemistry with François Morel in 1993.[8] The book was described by David Sedlak as a “a masterpiece that has influenced the way in which water chemistry is taught".[5]
In 2007, she returned to the ETH Zurich, where she was appointed Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry, and became Director of EAWAG.[25] At EAWAG Hering is responsible for a $48 million annual budget, 300 staff and 100 graduate students.[1] She was the first woman to be made Director of a Swiss federal research institute.[1] She was made a Professor of Environmental Chemistry at EPFL in 2010.[2] Since her return to Switzerland, Hering has worked on water quality and management, as well as promoting collaboration between academics.[26] She is an investigator of the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center for Re-inventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt).[27] Hering has written about the need for more knowledge brokering and ways to use interdisciplinary science to address challenges in society.[28][29] In particular, Hering has offered that if water research were synthesized, it would be possible to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.[30]
^Wilkie, Jennifer A.; Hering, Janet G. (1998-03-01). "Rapid Oxidation of Geothermal Arsenic(III) in Streamwaters of the Eastern Sierra Nevada". Environmental Science & Technology. 32 (5): 657–662. Bibcode:1998EnST...32..657W. doi:10.1021/es970637r. ISSN0013-936X.
^Dixit, Suvasis; Hering, Janet G. (2003-09-01). "Comparison of Arsenic(V) and Arsenic(III) Sorption onto Iron Oxide Minerals: Implications for Arsenic Mobility". Environmental Science & Technology. 37 (18): 4182–4189. Bibcode:2003EnST...37.4182D. doi:10.1021/es030309t. ISSN0013-936X. PMID14524451.
^Hering, Janet G.; Chen, Pen-Yuan; Wilkie, Jennifer A.; Elimelech, Menachem (1997). "Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water during Coagulation". Journal of Environmental Engineering. 123 (8): 800–807. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9372(1997)123:8(800).
^Hering, Janet G.; Chen, Pen-Yuan; Wilkie, Jennifer A.; Elimelech, Menachem; Liang, Sun (1996). "Arsenic removal by ferric chloride". Journal - American Water Works Association. 88 (4): 155–167. doi:10.1002/j.1551-8833.1996.tb06541.x. ISSN1551-8833.
^Technologies and costs for removal of arsenic from drinking water. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, Standards and Risk Management Division, Targeting and Analysis Branch. 2000. OCLC56417266.
^Waypa, John J.; Elimelech, Menachem; Hering, Janet G. (1997). "Arsenic removal by RO and NF membranes". Journal - American Water Works Association. 89 (10): 102–114. doi:10.1002/j.1551-8833.1997.tb08309.x. ISSN1551-8833.
^Chiu, Van Q.; Hering, Janet G. (2000-05-01). "Arsenic Adsorption and Oxidation at Manganite Surfaces. 1. Method for Simultaneous Determination of Adsorbed and Dissolved Arsenic Species". Environmental Science & Technology. 34 (10): 2029–2034. Bibcode:2000EnST...34.2029C. doi:10.1021/es990788p. ISSN0013-936X.