Song Named Scialog Fellow in Sustainable Minerals, Metals and Materials
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May 24, 2024
Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE) Assistant Professor Wen Song was named a Scialog Fellow in Sustainable Minerals, Metals and Materials (SM3) this spring.
She is one of 58 scientists — including just two from Texas institutions — selected from universities and laboratories across the United States and Canada.
Set to begin in September, the three-year SM3 initiative will spark advances in the mining, design, manufacture and disposal of materials needed to achieve a more sustainable and low-carbon energy system. SM3 fellows have expertise in fields including chemistry, materials science, geology, ecology, engineering, mining, computational science, physics and more, all with an emphasis on how to ensure a sustainable future. SM3 is co-sponsored by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA), Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Kavli Foundation.
Song is a George H. Fancher Assistant Professor of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering in UT PGE. Her research focuses on understanding and leveraging the fundamental micro/nanoscale transport dynamics that dictate subsurface energy and environmental resources. Her key contributions toward addressing the challenge of supplying reliable, sustainable energy to the world include the development of the first operando visualization platform that allows in situ observation of reaction kinetics and reactive transport within nanoporous materials, and pioneering the field of real-rock microfluidics to enable direct, real-time, pore-scale visualization of transport dynamics in micro/nanofluidic systems with representative geometric and chemical characteristics. Her recent honors include the 2023 Arie van Weelden Award from the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), a 2022 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and a DNI Award from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF).
Scialog — short for “science + dialog” — was created in 2010 by RCSA to stimulate intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance. Scialog’s goal is to facilitate connections among scientists from a variety of disciplines so they can discuss challenges and bottlenecks to advancing fundamental science, to build community around visionary goals, and to develop ideas for innovative team projects.
