Yong Wang receives national American Chemical Society award

Yong Wang, Voiland Distinguished Professor in WSU’s Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, is the recipient of the 2021 American Chemical Society’s (ACS) E.V. Murphree Award in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry sponsored by ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Company.

The annual award is given for outstanding theoretical or experimental research in industrial chemistry or chemical engineering. Wang will receive the award during the 2021 ACS annual spring national meeting in San Antonio, and a special symposium will be held in honor of Wang’s award as a part of the Catalysis Science and Technology Division program.

“Having Yong receive this award is a testament to the significant contributions that he has made in the areas of catalysis and chemical conversion technology,” said Mary Rezac, dean of the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture. “I am so pleased to see him recognized with this important award and congratulate him on this outstanding achievement.”

A WSU alumnus who joined WSU in 2009, Wang is known for his work in developing novel catalytic materials and for research in fossil and biomass feedstocks conversion to fuels and other chemicals. He holds a joint appointment with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he is a Laboratory Fellow and associate director of the Institute for Integrated Catalysis.

Wang has published 330 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including in Science, Nature family journals, Agewandt Chemie, and the Journal of the American Chemical Society with more than 26,000 citations and an H index of 75. He holds 290 issued patents, including 108 issued U.S. patents, and has won numerous awards including the 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Practice Award and the 2018 ACS I&EC Division Fellow Award.

He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the 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 holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from WSU.