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]

Evelyn Wang
Born1978 (age 45–46)
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

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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