Heavy metals, such as lead, chromium, cadmium, zinc, copper, and nickel, are important constituents of most living organisms, as well as many nonliving substances. Some heavy metals are essential for growth of biological and microbiological lives, yet their presence in excessive quantities is harmful to humans and interferes with many environmental

Dr. J. Paul Chen is an associate professor of environmental engineering at the National University of Singapore. His research interests are physicochemical treatment of water and wastewater and modeling. He has published more than 100 journal papers and book chapters with a citation count of more than 2,500 and an H-index of 28. Professor Chen is also the co-editor of Heavy Metals in the Environment (CRC Press, 2009). He holds seven patents in the areas of sorption technologies, ballast water management, and exhaust gas treatment. Professor Chen has received various honors and awards, including guest professor of the Hua Zhong University of Science and Technology and Shandong University of China, and Distinguished Overseas Chinese Young Scholar of National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has been recognized as an author of highly cited papers (chemistry and engineering) of ISI Web of Knowledge. Professor Chen received his master's in engineering from the Tsinghua University of Beijing and his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

Occurrence and Importance of Heavy Metal Contamination. Pollution Prevention: Principles and Applications. Precipitation Technology. Precipitation-Crystallization Technology. Reduction-Oxidation Processes. Electrochemical Technologies. Adsorption: Materials, Chemistry, and Applications. Calculation of Metal Ion Uptake in Environmental Systems. Index.