Evelyn Wang facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Evelyn Wang
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| Born | 1978 (age 46–47) |
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| Awards | Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water 2018 Alternative Water Resources |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mechanical Engineering |
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| Thesis | Characterization of Microfabricated Two-Phase Heat Sinks for IC Cooling Applications (2006) |
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Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang is a brilliant mechanical engineer. She works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, she is a top professor and leads the Mechanical Engineering department. She also directs the Device Research Laboratory. Her work focuses on things like how heat moves, super water-repellent surfaces, solar energy, and tiny structures called nanostructures.
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About Evelyn Wang
Evelyn Wang's parents were both engineers. Her father, Kang L. Wang, was an electrical engineer. He moved from Taiwan to the US to study at MIT. Her mother, Edith Wang, also came from Taiwan to study at MIT. They met each other there.
Evelyn grew up in Santa Monica, California. Her father became a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Evelyn went to public schools there. She also traveled internationally with a youth orchestra.
Education and Early Career
Like her parents and two older brothers, Evelyn went to MIT. She earned her first degree there in 2000. She then went to Stanford University for her advanced degrees. She earned her doctorate degree in 2006.
Her special project for her doctorate was about tiny heat sinks. These are devices that help cool down computer chips. After Stanford, she did more research at Bell Labs. In 2007, she returned to MIT to become a professor.
Amazing Research and Career
Evelyn Wang is famous for her work on making drinking water from the air. She designs devices that use solar power to do this. This is very helpful in places where water is scarce.
Water from Air Technology
In 2017, her water-making technology was named one of the "Top 10 Emerging Technologies." This was by Scientific American and the World Economic Forum. Her device can pull water from the air, even in dry places.
People have compared her device to the moisture vaporators from Star Wars. These were machines on the desert planet Tatooine that collected water. But Evelyn's device works differently. It uses a special material called a metal–organic framework. This material traps water vapor at night. Then, during the day, solar heat releases the water from the material.
Her research team has also created a solar-powered system. This system can remove salt from seawater. This helps produce clean drinking water from the ocean.
Working for the U.S. Government
In 2022, President Joe Biden chose Evelyn Wang for an important job. She was nominated to lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. This agency is part of the U.S. Department of Energy. It helps develop new energy technologies. The United States Senate approved her nomination in December 2022.
Awards and Recognitions
Evelyn Wang has received many awards for her work. Here are some of them:
- In 2008, she won the Young Faculty Award from DARPA. This was for her work on tiny heat sinks.
- She received the Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research in 2011.
- In 2012, she won the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research.
- The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) gave her the Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in 2012. She is also a Fellow of the ASME.
- In 2017, the ASME gave her the Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award.
- In 2018, she and Omar M. Yaghi won the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water. This was for their water-from-air technology.
- In 2021, she became a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- In 2023, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
