Wendy Mao

Wendy Li-Wen Mao is an American geologist who is a professor at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Her research considers the mineral physics of planetary interiors, new materials under extreme environments and novel characterisation techniques. In 2021 she was elected Fellow of the European Association of Geochemistry.

Early life and education Mao is a second generation Chinese American, born to Agnes Mao and Ho-Kwang Mao. She grew up in Washington, D.C. She moved to the University of Chicago as a graduate student, where she studied the geochemistry of iron in the core of the Earth.

Research and career Mao joined the faculty at Stanford University in 2007. Her research considers the study of extreme environments in an effort to design more efficient materials for energy generation and storage.

In 2015, Mao found evidence that life existed on earth 4.1 billion years ago, which indicates that it survived the well-documented bombardment of the inner solar system that formed the craters in the moon. She made use of X-ray imaging to study zircons, durable minerals that form from molten rocks and preserve information about their immediate environments for hundreds of thousands of years.

Mao has combined her training in materials science with her interest in geology to design light, strong metal alloys. These alloys are produced at high pressures and contain hexagonally closed packed structures, which result in extraordinarily high entropy alloys.

Awards and honors 2008 Stanford University Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences Distinguished Lecturer 2013 Mineralogical Society of America Award 2021 Elected Fellow of the European Association of Geochemistry 2021 Elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union

Selected publications