Alvin Q. Meng is an inorganic chemist and doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he works to understand the fundamental interactions underlying chemical structure and reactivity. He is currently studying iron–sulfur clusters under the guidance of Professor Daniel L.M. Suess.
Born in Tianjin, China, Meng immigrated to the United States at the age of 10. He received undergraduate degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Virginia, where he worked in the research group of Professor W. Dean Harman. His research involved the synthesis and characterization of dihapto-coordinated tungsten complexes of cyclopentadiene, focusing on a class of unusual binuclear species containing a carbon–carbon bond linking two metal-bound five-membered rings.
When not at his glovebox, Meng can be found playing city builders and factory games, reading fantasy literature, making odds and ends with his 3D printer, grinding fountain pen nibs, or struggling to save his plants from untimely desiccation in the Boston winter.
