Yong Wang, Voiland Distinguished Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, has been named a recipient of the 2019 Catalysis and Reaction Engineering (CRE) Division Practice Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
The award is bestowed every odd-numbered year for pioneering contributions to the industrial practice of catalysis and chemical reaction engineering.
Wang is internationally renowned for his development of novel catalytic materials and reaction engineering for the conversion of fossil and biomass feedstocks to fuels and chemicals.
Wang joined WSU in 2009 and holds a joint appointment with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.
Besides authoring more than 300 peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific journals including Science, Nature group journals, Agewandt, and Journal of the American Chemical Society, Wang is the inventor on 287 issued patents including 108 issued U.S. patents. His discoveries in microchannel reaction technologies led to the formation of Velocys, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Wang has won numerous awards including the 2018 American Chemical Society I&EC Division Fellow Award, the 2006 Asian American Engineer of the Year Award, the Presidential Green Chemistry Award and three prestigious R&D 100 awards, which annually recognize the 100 most significant and innovative, new technologies that have been introduced in the marketplace.
Wang is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Royal Society of Chemistry, National Academy of Inventors and a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences.
Wang received his M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from WSU. He is also a Laboratory Fellow and associate director of the Institute for Integrated Catalysis at PNNL.
