News Three J-WAFS PIs honored as AAAS Fellows

Summer Weidman January 26, 2022

Headshots of the three Fellows: Ian Hunter, Evelyn Wang, and Mircea Dincă

J-WAFS PIs elected 2021 AAAS Fellows (L to R): Ian Hunter, Evelyn Wang, and Mircea Dincă

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has elected three J-WAFS PIs to the newest class of AAAS Fellows: Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang, Ian W. Hunter, and Mircea Dincă. Being named an AAAS Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors within the scientific community.

The 2021 class of AAAS Fellows includes 564 scientists, engineers, and innovators from 24 scientific disciplines ranging from research, teaching, and technology, to administration in academia, industry, and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.

“AAAS is proud to bestow the honor of AAAS Fellow to some of today’s brightest minds who are integral to forging our path into the future,” says Sudip Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “We celebrate these distinguished individuals for their invaluable contributions to the scientific enterprise.”

Evelyn Ning-Yi Wang, the Gail E. Kendall Professor and department head of Mechanical Engineering, is being honored for her research in water harvesting devices, which was supported by J-WAFS with a 2017 seed grant. She is also recognized for her fundamental contributions in understanding and enhancing liquid-vapor phase change processes via novel nanoengineered materials design, and her advancements in thermal management and solar thermal energy, the latter of which was applied in a 2021 J-WAFS seed grant project.

Ian W. Hunter, the George N. Hatsopoulos Professor in Thermodynamics, is acknowledged for his work using micro-instrumentation, microfabrication, and microrobotics to develop and improve medical devices, as well as for his innovative courses for undergraduates. Professor Hunter was part of a water quality sensor project with Xylem 2017-2020 through the J-WAFS Research Affiliate program.

Mircea Dincă, the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy in the Department of Chemistry, is being elected for his distinguished contributions to materials chemistry, particularly for pioneering the area of electrically conductive metal-organic frameworks to address challenges in energy and the environment. Professor Dincă and Professor Wang were, in fact, co-PIs on this work during the aforementioned 2017 J-WAFS seed grant.

The full class of 2021 Fellows will be celebrated sometime in 2022 during an in-person event when it is feasible from a public health and safety perspective to gather. They will also be featured in the AAAS News & Notes section of Science in January 2022. J-WAFS congratulates Evelyn Wang, Ian Hunter, and Mircea Dincă on this great honor and for their extraordinary contributions to science and society.