Washington State University Regents Professor Yong Wang has been selected as recipient of the 2025 Robert Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis.
The prestigious award is given every other year to one recipient in recognition of substantial contributions to one or more areas in the field of catalysis. Sponsored by Johnson Matthey and administered by The North American Catalysis Society (NACS), the award allows the awardee to present lectures to catalysis clubs and societies affiliated with NACS throughout North America.
Wang, Voiland Distinguished Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, is widely recognized for his pioneering work in developing novel catalytic materials and reaction engineering to tackle energy and atom efficiency challenges in converting carbon sources — including fossil fuels, biomass, carbon dioxide, and plastic waste — into fuels and chemicals with minimal environmental impact.
“This is a well-deserved achievement and recognition by the top catalysis researchers in the world,” said Su Ha, George Austin Endowed Director of the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering. “This award and upcoming presentations to societies and clubs across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico during the next two years will continue to increase the growing reputation of our school, college, and university in this important area of research.”
A WSU alumnus who received his MS and PhD in chemical engineering, Wang has been a faculty member at WSU since 2009. He also holds a joint appointment with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he is acting director of the Institute for Integrated Catalysis and a Laboratory Fellow.
Besides authoring more than 450 peer-reviewed publications in leading scientific journals including Science, Nature, Nature group journals, Agewandt, and Journal of the American Chemical Society, Wang is the inventor on 287 issued patents including 111 issued U.S. patents.
Wang was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He is also 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. In the past two years, he has been recognized as a highly cited researcher among the top 1% by citations in his field by the analytics company, Clarivate.
The award will be presented during the upcoming North American Catalysis Society meeting in Atlanta in June.
