Funded Researchers
Gang Chen
- Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering
- Director, Pappalardo Micro and Nano Engineering Laboratories
- Director, DOE EFRC: Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)
- Department of Mechanical Engineering
Gang Chen is currently the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He served as the Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and as the director of the Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. He received an NSF Young Investigator Award, an R&D 100 award, the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award, the Frank Kreith Energy Award, the Nukiyama Memorial Award by the Japan Heat Transfer Society, a World Technology Network Award in Energy, an Eringen Medal from the Society of Engineering Science, and the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellences in Mentoring and Advising from MIT. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for Advancement of Science, APS, ASME, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is an academician of Academia Sinica and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
Photo Credit: Tony Pulsone
J-WAFS-funded projects
- Solar photomolecular desalination
- Hybrid evaporative and radiative cooling as a passive low-cost high-performance solution for food shelf-life extension
- Smart porous hydrogels for atmospheric water harvesting
- Floating, heat localizing solar receivers for distributed desalination
Publications
- Photomolecular effect: Visible light interaction with air–water interface
- Plausible photomolecular effect leading to water evaporation exceeding the thermal limit
News
- J-WAFS researchers discover an effect that can improve desalination
- J-WAFS researchers uncover "photomolecular effect," fueling solar desalination breakthrough
- J-WAFS PI Gang Chen receives 2022 Bose grant for ambitious ideas
- J-WAFS announces 2022 seed grant recipients
- A project by J-WAFS PI Gang Chen sterilizing medical equipment with solar powered steam has been featured on The Economist