By Tina Hilding, Voiland College of Engineering & Architecture
PULLMAN, Wash. – Yong Wang, an internationally known researcher in catalysis and reaction engineering for energy and renewable fuels and chemicals, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
Election is accorded to academics who have demonstrated innovation in creating or facilitating inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
“Dr. Wang is a prolific inventor whose life work directly addresses our national energy challenges by improving the efficiency in how we make our most common fuels and products,’’ said Candis Claiborn, dean of the Washington State University Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture. “His work comes out of a lab but ends up in important industrial manufacturing processes, leading to a stronger state and national economy.’’
A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Wang is Voiland Distinguished Professor in WSU’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering. A WSU alumnus (M.S. ’92, Ph.D. ’93, chemical engineering), he is one of four NAI fellows from Washington and the second from WSU.
He holds a joint appointment with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he is a laboratory fellow and associate director of PNNL’s Institute for Integrated Catalysis. He was named the PNNL Inventor of the Year twice and has published 215 peer-reviewed articles that have been cited more than 13,000 times.
He holds 249 issues patents, including 95 for the U.S. He has earned several awards, including three R&D 100 awards that annually recognize the 100 most significant and innovative new technologies introduced in the marketplace.
Wang is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society. The Chinese Institute of Engineers named him the 2006 Asian American Engineer of the Year, and he is a member of the Washington Academy of Sciences.
The NAI fellows will be inducted on April 15 as part of the Fifth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Va.
Find more information at http://www.academyofinventors.org.