Distinguished Alumni Award

In recognition of his outstanding career and tireless support for the School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, the faculty awarded Dr. Yong Wang of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Congratulations Yong Wang!

Dr. Yong Wang received his M.S. and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from Washington State University in 1992 and 1993 before joining Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in 1994 as a postdoc fellow. He became a research engineer in 1996, a senior research engineer in 1997, a chief scientist in 2000, and in 2005 Wang became a laboratory fellow- the highest scientific rank at PNNL. Recently Wang took on another title as the associate director of the Institute for Interfacial Catalysis at PNNL. In this position, he manages and directs a team of Catalysis & Reaction Engineers in the areas of novel catalytic materials and innovative reaction engineering such as microchannel reactors, structured monolith reactors and membrane reactors for hydrocarbon and biomass conversions to fuels/chemicals; fundamental studies of structural and functional relationship of early transition metal oxide and bimetallic catalysts; novel and durable cathode materials for PEM fuel cell applications. Wang’s work spans from fundamental to applied research in clean energy conversion. His discoveries in microchannel reaction technology led to the spin-off of Velocys, a wholly owned subsidiary of Battelle in the commercialization of microchannel technology.

Coinciding with his productive career, Wang has and continues to receive accolades from his peers and institutions the world-over. The Chinese Institute of Engineers named Wang the 2006 Asian American Engineer of the Year. His awards also include two R&D100 awards (1997 and 1999) and a Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 1999. He was twice named PNNL Inventor of the Year in 2004 and 2006. He was honored as a Battelle Distinguished Inventor in 2004. He is also a first-time recipient of PNNL Laboratory Director’s Award for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 2005. He is an Adjunct Professor in ChE at Washington State University, a Guest Professor at Tianjin University (China), Sichuan University, Dalian University of Technology, and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. He currently serves on the editorial board of Catalysis Today and Journal of Nanomaterials. He also serves as the Program Committee Chair of the ACS (American Chemical Society) Petroleum Division (2006-2008). He has organized numerous international and national conferences and has more than 100 peer reviewed publications, more than 50 invited presentations, 52 issued U.S. patents, and two books edited on Microreactor and Process Intensification.