Michael S. Wong, Ph.D, is the Tina and Sunit Patel Chair in
Molecular Nanotechnology and professor in the Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He is also professor in the
Departments of Chemistry, of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and of
Materials Science and Nano Engineering. He is Research Thrust Leader in the
Rice WaTER Institute and Director of the Rice PFAS Abatement and Replacement
Center (Rice PAR). His research program tackles water, sustainability, and
energy issues through chemical engineering, materials chemistry, and
heterogeneous catalysis approaches. He develops thermal/photo/electro-catalysis
technologies to de-construct molecules, i.e., treat water of undesirable
contaminants like drycleaning and industrial solvents, fertilizer runoff, and
PFAS. His Catalysis and Nanomaterials Laboratory has generated over 220
publications, cited cumulatively over 20,000 times. He received the 2023
AIChE Lawrence K. Cecil Award, the highest environmental honor in chemical
engineering, the International Precious Metals Institute's 2025 Henry J. Albert
Award for pioneering precious metal catalysis for clean water applications, and
the 2025 AIChE NSEF Award, the highest nanotechnology honor in chemical
engineering. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers
(AIChE), the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the Royal Society of
Chemistry (RSC). He serves on the ACS Society Committee on Publications, and as
an executive editor for the ACS journal Environmental Science and Technology.