Evelyn Wang

Evelyn N. Wang is a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is the Gail E. Kendall (1978) Professor of Mechanical Engineering, director of the Device Research Laboratory, and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.[2] Topics in her research include heat transfer, ultrahydrophobicity, solar energy and nanostructures.[2][3]

Evelyn Wang
Born1978 (age 42–43)
New York
Alma mater
AwardsPrince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water
2018 Alternative Water Resources
Scientific career
FieldsMechanical Engineering
Institutions
ThesisCharacterization of Microfabricated Two-Phase Heat Sinks for IC Cooling Applications (2006)
Doctoral advisors
  • Thomas W. Kenny
  • Kenneth E. Goodson
Websitemeche.mit.edu/people/faculty/enwang@mit.edu
Notes

Research

Wang is particularly known for her research on solar-powered devices to extract drinkable water from the atmosphere.[4][5][6] Scientific American and the World Economic Forum named her technology that produces water from air in an arid climate as one of the "Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2017".[7] Her water extraction device, which she designed in collaboration with Omar M. Yaghi, has been compared to the moisture vaporators on the desert planet Tatooine in Star Wars.[8] However, rather than using refrigeration to condense water vapor, it uses a metal–organic framework to trap water vapor in the night and then uses the heat from solar energy to release the water from the framework during the day.[9][10]

Biography

Wang is the daughter of Kang L. Wang, an electrical engineer who emigrated from Taiwan to the US to become a graduate student at MIT; her mother Edith Wang was also a Taiwanese graduate student at MIT, where both parents met one another. Her father became a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Wang grew up in Santa Monica, California, attending public school there and traveling internationally as part of a youth orchestra.[3]

Like her parents and her two older brothers, Wang attended MIT herself, earning a bachelor's degree there in 2000.[3] Her doctorate is from Stanford University in 2006.[2][3] Her dissertation, Characterization of Microfabricated Two-Phase Heat Sinks for IC Cooling Applications, was jointly supervised by Thomas W. Kenny and Kenneth E. Goodson.[11]

Wang did postdoctoral research at Bell Labs before returning to MIT as a faculty member in 2007.[3][5]

Awards and honors

The ASME gave Wang their Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award in 2017; she is also a Fellow of the ASME.[12] In 2018 she and co-author Omar M. Yaghi won the 8th Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water.[13]

References
  1. Schaffer, Amanda (February 18, 2015). "Family Ties". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  2. "Evelyn Wang named head of Department of Mechanical Engineering: Expert in high-efficiency energy and water systems will succeed Gang Chen as MechE department head", MIT News, June 22, 2018, retrieved August 23, 2018
  3. Chandler, David L. (September 5, 2014), "A lifelong relationship with the Institute: Newly tenured Evelyn Wang — whose parents met at MIT — studies heat transfer in materials", MIT News, retrieved August 23, 2018
  4. Cox, David (December 15, 2017), Can these water-gathering devices help avert 'pipeageddon?' Automatic water generators and water harvesters are designed to suck drinking water from the air, NBC News, retrieved August 23, 2018
  5. "Solar-powered device pulls drinking water straight out of thin air", Sydney Morning Herald, April 17, 2017, retrieved August 23, 2018
  6. Service, Robert F. (April 13, 2017), This new solar-powered device can pull water straight from the desert air, retrieved August 23, 2018
  7. "Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2017", Scientific American, June 26, 2017, retrieved August 4, 2018
  8. Yang, Sarah (April 13, 2017). "Scientists Pull Water Out of Thin Air". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  9. Johnson, Scott K. (April 17, 2017), "Hello Tatooine! An unpowered device can harvest water vapor in a desert", Ars Technica, retrieved August 23, 2018
  10. Kim, Hyunho; Yang, Sungwoo; Rao, Sameer R.; Narayanan, Shankar; Kapustin, Eugene A.; Furukawa, Hiroyasu; Umans, Ari S.; Yaghi, Omar M.; Wang, Evelyn N. (April 28, 2017). "Water harvesting from air with metal-organic frameworks powered by natural sunlight". Science. 356 (6336): 430–434. doi:10.1126/science.aam8743. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 28408720.
  11. Curriculum vitae (PDF), 2007, retrieved August 6, 2018
  12. Evelyn N. Wang, 2017 ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, ASME, January 2018, retrieved August 6, 2018
  13. Professors Omar Yaghi and Evelyn Wang awarded international water prize, University of California, Berkeley, College of Chemistry, June 21, 2018, retrieved August 6, 2018
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