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Climate Money WatchdogAuthor: Dina Rasor & Greg Williams
Climate Money Watchdog is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power with a focus on government expenditures related to climate change mitigation and environmental remediation. When the government and private organizations fail the public or silence those who report wrongdoing, we will be there as an open or anonymous place for them to help expose the corruption and maleficence. We champion reforms to achieve more effective, ethical, and accountable federal, state, and local government that safeguards constitutional principles and fiscal responsibility for climate and environmental spending. Language: en-us Genres: Government, News, Politics Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Dr. Michael S. Wong - Capturing and Disposing of PFAS at 1,000x Speed
Episode 2
Tuesday, 19 May, 2026
Our guest tonight is Dr. Michael S. Wong, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. He is also professor in the Departments of Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Materials Science and NanoEngineering. He was educated and trained at Caltech, MIT, and UCSB before arriving at Rice in 2001. His research program broadly addresses chemical engineering problems using the tools of materials chemistry, with a particular interest in energy and environmental applications ("catalysis for clean water"). He has received numerous honors, including the MIT TR35 Young Innovator Award, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Young Investigator Award, Smithsonian Magazine Young Innovator Award, and the North American Catalysis Society/Southwest Catalysis Society Excellence in Applied Catalysis Award. He is research thrust leader on multifunctional nanomaterials in the NSF-funded NEWT (Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment) Engineering Research Center. He is chair of the ACS Division of Catalysis Science and Technology (CATL), and serves on the Applied Catalysis B: Environmental editorial board. Previous experiences include chairmanship of the AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum and Chemistry of Materials editorial board membership.The focus of this podcast is recent work led by Dr. Youngkun Chung, one of Dr. Wong's postdoctoral research associates, which describes a new approach to filtering PFAS from water at 1,000 times the efficiency of methods such as activated carbon. Better still, the captured PFAS can be removed from this new filter medium in a process that renders it safe, and the medium ready for reuse.Topics covered include:Description of PFAS chemicals areHow they get into the environmentLimitations of existing filtration approachesDetails of the new technologyHow Dr. Wong's team at Rice University collaborate to develop technlogies that use chemical engineering to make our environment cleaner.Support the showVisit us at climatemoneywatchdog.org!
