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Evelyn Wang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the mechanical engineer. For the fictional character, see Evelyn Quan Wang.

Evelyn Wang
Born1978 (age 45–46)
New York
Alma mater
AwardsPrince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water
2018 Alternative Water Resources
Scientific career
FieldsMechanical Engineering
Institutions
ThesisCharacterization of Microfabricated Two-Phase Heat Sinks for IC Cooling Applications (2006)
Doctoral advisors
  • Thomas W. Kenny
  • Kenneth E. Goodson
Websitemeche.mit.edu/people/faculty/enwang@mit.edu Edit this at Wikidata
Notes

Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang is a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is the Ford Professor of Mechanical Engineering,[2] director of the Device Research Laboratory, and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.[3] Topics in her research include heat transfer, ultrahydrophobicity, solar energy and nanostructures.[3][4]

Biography

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Wang is the daughter of Kang L. Wang, an electrical engineer who emigrated from Taiwan to the US to become a graduate student at MIT; her mother Edith Wang was also a Taiwanese graduate student at MIT, where both parents met one another. Her father became a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Wang grew up in Santa Monica, California, attending public school there and traveling internationally as part of a youth orchestra.[4]

Like her parents and her two older brothers, Wang attended MIT herself, earning a bachelor's degree there in 2000.[4] Her doctorate is from Stanford University in 2006.[3][4] Her dissertation, Characterization of Microfabricated Two-Phase Heat Sinks for IC Cooling Applications, was jointly supervised by Thomas W. Kenny and Kenneth E. Goodson.[5]

Wang did postdoctoral research at Bell Labs before returning to MIT as a faculty member in 2007.[4][6]

Career and research

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Wang is particularly known for her research on solar-powered devices to extract drinkable water from the atmosphere.[7][6][8] Scientific American and the World Economic Forum named her technology that produces water from air in an arid climate as one of the "Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2017".[9] Her water extraction device, which she designed in collaboration with Omar M. Yaghi, has been compared to the moisture vaporators on the desert planet Tatooine in Star Wars.[10] However, rather than using refrigeration to condense water vapor, it uses a metal–organic framework to trap water vapor in the night and then uses the heat from solar energy to release the water from the framework during the day.[11][12] Her research group has also developed a solar powered desalination system in producing clean water.[13]

Biden administration

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Wang was nominated by President Joe Biden in March 2022 as director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy of the U.S. Department of Energy.[14] She was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 22, 2022.[15]

Awards and honors

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Wang was awarded the Young Faculty Award by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2008 for the project Tunable Nanostructured Arrays for Stable High-Flux Microchannel Heat Sinks.[16] She was awarded the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award in 2011,[17] the U.S. Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2012,[18] and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in 2012.[19] The ASME gave Wang their Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award in 2017; she is also a Fellow of the ASME.[20] In 2018 she and co-author Omar M. Yaghi won the 8th Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water.[21] She was named to the 2021 class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[22] In 2023 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[23]

References

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  1. ^ Schaffer, Amanda (February 18, 2015). "Family Ties". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  2. ^ "MECHE PEOPLE: Evelyn Wang | MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering". meche.mit.edu. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "Evelyn Wang named head of Department of Mechanical Engineering: Expert in high-efficiency energy and water systems will succeed Gang Chen as MechE department head", MIT News, June 22, 2018, retrieved August 23, 2018
  4. ^ a b c d e Chandler, David L. (September 5, 2014), "A lifelong relationship with the Institute: Newly tenured Evelyn Wang — whose parents met at MIT — studies heat transfer in materials", MIT News, retrieved August 23, 2018
  5. ^ Curriculum vitae (PDF), 2007, retrieved August 6, 2018
  6. ^ a b "Solar-powered device pulls drinking water straight out of thin air", Sydney Morning Herald, April 17, 2017, retrieved August 23, 2018
  7. ^ Cox, David (December 15, 2017), "Can these water-gathering devices help avert 'pipeageddon?' Automatic water generators and water harvesters are designed to suck drinking water from the air", NBC News, retrieved August 23, 2018
  8. ^ Service, Robert F. (April 13, 2017), This new solar-powered device can pull water straight from the desert air, retrieved August 23, 2018
  9. ^ Dichristina, Mariette; Meyerson, Bernard S. (June 26, 2017), "Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2017", Scientific American, vol. 317, no. 6, pp. 28–39, Bibcode:2017SciAm.317f..28D, doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1217-28, PMID 29145372, retrieved August 4, 2018
  10. ^ Yang, Sarah (April 13, 2017). "Scientists Pull Water Out of Thin Air". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  11. ^ Johnson, Scott K. (April 17, 2017), "Hello Tatooine! An unpowered device can harvest water vapor in a desert", Ars Technica, retrieved August 23, 2018
  12. ^ Kim, Hyunho; Yang, Sungwoo; Rao, Sameer R.; Narayanan, Shankar; Kapustin, Eugene A.; Furukawa, Hiroyasu; Umans, Ari S.; Yaghi, Omar M.; Wang, Evelyn N. (April 28, 2017). "Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight". Science. 356 (6336): 430–434. Bibcode:2017Sci...356..430K. doi:10.1126/science.aam8743. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 28408720.
  13. ^ Zhang, Lenan; Li, Xiangyu; Zhong, Yang; Leroy, Arny; Xu, Zhenyuan; Zhao, Lin; Wang, Evelyn N. (February 14, 2022). "Highly efficient and salt rejecting solar evaporation via a wick-free confined water layer". Nature Communications. 13 (1): 849. Bibcode:2022NatCo..13..849Z. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28457-8. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 8844429. PMID 35165279.
  14. ^ "Statement By Secretary Granholm On President Biden's Nomination Of Dr. Evelyn Wang". Energy.gov. March 9, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  15. ^ "PN1831 — Evelyn Wang — Department of Energy, 117th Congress (2021-2022)". United States Congress. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  16. ^ "News Release Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency". studylib.net. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  17. ^ "Evelyn Wang receives Air Force Young Investigator Award". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. November 2, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  18. ^ "2012 Young Investigators - Office of Naval Research". www.onr.navy.mil. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  19. ^ "Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat". www.asme.org. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
  20. ^ Evelyn N. Wang, 2017 ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, ASME, January 2018, retrieved August 6, 2018
  21. ^ Professors Omar Yaghi and Evelyn Wang awarded international water prize, University of California, Berkeley, College of Chemistry, June 21, 2018, retrieved August 6, 2018
  22. ^ 2021 Fellows, American Association for the Advancement of Science, retrieved January 31, 2022
  23. ^ New members, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2023, retrieved April 22, 2023
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