Michael S. Wong, the Tina and Sunit Patel Professor in Molecular Nanotechnology and professor and chair of chemical and biomolecular engineering (ChBE) at Rice University, has received the Lawrence K. Cecil Award in Environmental Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).
It is the most prestigious environmental award within AIChE and is given by the Environmental Division. Wong was recognized for his “outstanding chemical engineering contribution and achievement in the preservation [and] improvement of the environment.”
Wong directs the Catalysis and Nanomaterials Laboratory at Rice, which explores fundamental nanoscale processes and develops new techniques for designing and synthesizing nanomaterials for addressing global problems. His research lies at the interface of chemical engineering, chemistry and materials science.
Using nanotechnology, Wong’s research group addresses problems related to clean water and the environment, green chemistry and sustainable chemicals production, and clean energy and hydrogen production from water.
Wong has joint appointments in chemistry, materials science and nanoengineering, and civil and environmental engineering. He joined Rice’s faculty in 2001 and became department chair in 2014.
Wong was recently named a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Last year he was named a fellow of AIChE and in 2018 a fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Previous honors include the Department of the Army’s Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, the ACS Southwest Region Award, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology TR35 Young Innovator Award and AIChE’s Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Young Investigator Award.
He is research leader for multifunctional nanomaterials for the Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment Center, or NEWT Center, a National Science Foundation-supported Engineering Research Center based at Rice. He is a past-chair of the AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum and the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Division of Catalysis Science and Technology, and a topic editor for the journal ACS Environmental Science & Technology Engineering.
Wong will formally receive the award at the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting to be held Nov. 5-10 in Orlando, Fla.