Dr. Jie (Joe) Zhuang is a professor in Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science, director of environmental and soil science graduate studies, and the lead of cluster hire initiative of climate-smart agriculture and forestry at the University of Tennessee (UT). He is also affiliated faculty of UT’s Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment. He has served on many national award committees as well as many review panels of funding agencies. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Zhuang's research topics range from soil hydrology to crop-water relation, carbon-water interaction, fate and transport of contaminants (such as virus, bacterium, organic chemicals, metals, engineering colloids, and nutrients), and food-energy-water nexus. In recent years, he links soil science to food-energy-water nexus by innovating strategies or solutions for soil restoration, safe reclaimed water irrigation, and structure-based soil resilience to climatic stresses. He has published over 160 refereed articles and book chapters and over 80 conference abstracts. He has been the editor or editorial board member for 13 journals and served over 60 journals as ad hoc reviewer. Currently, Dr. Zhuang leads projects aiming to develop climate-smart food-energy-water nexus on small farms for sustainable rural communities. In teaching, he provides undergraduate and graduate students with transdisciplinary training for understanding the complexity and impacts of food-energy-water nexus and circular agriculture practices on the environment and food systems.