Recent CCEE graduate Dr. Yixuan (Wendy) Wang (Ph.D. 2021) tied for second place for the Air and Waste Management Association (A&WMA) Dissertation Award for her research on life cycle assessment of solid waste management systems. Her paper was titled “Improving Life Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Solid Waste Management Decision Making.” 

Wang, who was advised by Dr. James Levis,  will be recognized at the A&WMA 115th Annual Conference & Exhibition in San Francisco on June 29. 

“I am excited to receive this doctoral dissertation award,” Wang said. “It feels like positive encouragement for me moving forward to an  academic or research-oriented career path. I hope to continue to see myself growing as a researcher, and this award nurtures that hope.”

Wang currently serves as a postdoctoral appointee at the Argonne National Laboratory, operated by UChicago Argonne for the U.S. Department of Energy in Lemont, Illinois, where she is working to develop life-cycle assessments for waste-to-energy and products technologies. Wang, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental engineering,  previously worked as a graduate research assistant for Levis’ group focused on solid waste management, energy systems, optimization and life-cycle assessment.