PULLMAN – Yong Wang, Voiland Distinguished Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, and associate director of the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has been named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Fellows are recognized for their exceptional accomplishments in chemical science and the profession, as well as their service to the ACS.
Wang, an internationally known researcher in the area of energy and renewable energy, joined WSU in 2009. He has a joint appointment with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and WSU. A portion of Wang’s appointment also is funded by WSU’s Agricultural Research Center, the state’s agricultural experiment station.
He is a leading researcher in the area of catalysis and biorenewable energy, where his work has had a significant impact on improving energy efficiency, particularly in the chemical and fuels industries.
Wang’s work spans from fundamental to applied research in clean energy conversion, including fundamental studies of structure and functional relationships of transition metal oxide and bimetallic catalysts, development of novel catalytic materials, and innovative work in reaction engineering to improve the conversion of biomass and hydrocarbons to fuels and chemicals. He also developed novel and durable materials for fuel cell applications.
Wang is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The Chinese Institute of Engineers also named him the 2006 Asian American Engineer of the Year. He is the recipient of three prestigious R&D 100 awards (1997, 1999 and 2008), which annually recognize the 100 most significant and innovative, new technologies that have been introduced in the marketplace. He is recipient of the Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 1999 and was twice named Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Inventor of the Year, in 2004 and 2006. He was honored as a Battelle Distinguished Inventor in 2004. In 2005 he received the PNNL Laboratory Director’s Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. Wang received his M.S. and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from WSU in 1992 and 1993.
Wang has co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, has given more than 60 invited presentations over the past five years, is an inventor or co-inventor on more than 100 issued patents and has edited six books and topic journal issues on novel materials and reaction engineering for fossil and biomass conversions.
ACS is the world’s largest chemical science professional society, with more than 161,000 members. The group publishes 38 professional journals.
