Illinois Tech’s Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER), with Armour College of Engineering, and the Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST) will present 2021 Distinguished Lecturer Evelyn N. Wang on Wednesday, April 14 at 3:30 p.m.

Evelyn N. Wang

Gail E. Kendall Professor and Department Head
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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ABSTRACT

Nanoengineered materials have exciting, untapped potential to improve energy and water technologies. In this talk, Wang will provide a few examples of how nanoscale manipulation capabilities are leveraged to develop advanced thermal management, solar thermal energy conversion, and water harvesting devices.

First, she will discuss her research group’s recent work that harnesses novel surface designs to control and manipulate wettability and liquid-vapor phase-change processes. The group demonstrated high flux evaporation from ultra-thin nanoporous membranes for thermal management applications. Next, Wang will discuss how nanoengineered materials can also be used to increase the efficiency of solar thermal devices. Specifically, she will share her group’s work on optically transparent thermally insulating aerogel solar receivers for energy conversion and medical sterilization. Finally, Wang will present a water harvesting device that leverages the unique properties of metal organic frameworks and other adsorbents along with novel device architectures to address water scarcity challenges in arid climates.

BIO

Evelyn N. Wang is the Gail E. Kendall Professor and Department Head in the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT. She received her B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. From 2006–2007, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Bell Laboratories. Her research interests include fundamental studies of micro/nanoscale heat and mass transport and the development of efficient thermal management, solar thermal energy conversion, and water harvesting systems. Wang’s work has been honored with awards including 2008 DARPA Young Faculty Award, the 2011 Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the 2012 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the 2012 ASME Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award, the 2016 ASME EPPD Women Engineer Award, the 2017 ASME Gustus L. Larson Award, and the 2020 ICNMM Prominent Researcher Award. Wang was recognized as one of Foreign Policy’s Global Re-Thinkers in 2017 and is an ASME Fellow.