Joseph Wang is an American researcher and inventor. He is a

Distinguished Professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

, SAIC

Endowed Chair A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are of ...

, and former Chair of the Department of

Nanoengineering Nanoengineering is the practice of engineering on the nanoscale. It derives its name from the nanometre, a unit of measurement equalling one billionth of a meter. Nanoengineering is largely a synonym for nanotechnology, but emphasizes the engineer ...

at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, who specialised in

nanomachines A molecular machine, nanite, or nanomachine is a molecular component that produces quasi-mechanical movements (output) in response to specific stimuli (input). In cellular biology, macromolecular machines frequently perform tasks essential for l ...

biosensors A biosensor is an analytical device, used for the detection of a chemical substance, that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector. The ''sensitive biological element'', e.g. tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell recep ...

, nano-bioelectronics,

wearable devices Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the skin, where they detec ...

, and

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...

. He is also the Director of the UCSD Center of Wearable Sensors and Co-Director of the UCSD Center of Mobile Health Systems and Applications (CMSA).

Biography

Wang was awarded a

D.Sc Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

in 1978, after which he served as a postdoctoral research associate at the

University of Wisconsin, Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

until 1980. Then, he joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

, position he maintained until 2004. At NMSU, he became a

Regents Professor Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs. In the United States Often specific to one institution, titles such ...

and holder of the Manasse Chair from 2001 to 2004. From 2004 to 2008, he served as the Director of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at the

Biodesign Institute The Biodesign Institute is a major research center known for nature-inspired solutions to global health, sustainability, and security challenges located on the Tempe campus of Arizona State University. The institute is organized into a growing ...

and as a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

(ASU). In 2008, he joined UCSD’s

Jacobs School of Engineering Jacobs may refer to: Businesses and organisations *Jacob's, a brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the UK *Jacobs (coffee), a brand of coffee *Jacobs Aircraft Engine Company, former American aircraft engine company ...

, serving as Chair of the Nanoengineering Department between 2014 and 2019. Wang founded the journal ''Electroanalysis'' (published by

Wiley-VCH Wiley-VCH is a German publisher owned by John Wiley & Sons. It was founded in 1921 as Verlag Chemie (meaning "Chemistry Press": VCH stands for ''Verlag Chemie'') by two German learned societies. Later, it was merged into the German Chemical Socie ...

) in 1988, serving as its

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

until 2018. The advances made by Wang and his research teams have been described in over 1200 research papers and reviews, that were cited over 150,000 times, leading to a

H-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 192 according to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

. He has supervised 40 PhD students and over 350 researchers and visiting students. Wang is also the author of 11 books and holds 30 patents. He is a member of the US National Academy of Inventors, being elected in the class of 2022 and of the

Turkish Academy of Sciences The Turkish Academy of Sciences ( tr, Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi – TÜBA) is an autonomous scholarly association aimed at promoting scientific activities in Turkey. Although it is attached to the office of the Prime Minister and is largely fund ...

(TÜBA), having received the TÜBA Science Award in 2022 for "his original, pioneering and groundbreaking research in basic and engineering sciences due to inventions that have strong and widespread worldwide impact on biosensors, nanobioelectronics, wearable sensors, micro-robotics and nanomotors that push the boundaries of health systems".

Fields of research

Wang's early research focused on electrochemical biosensors and detectors for clinical diagnostics and environmental monitoring, mainly on

blood glucose Glycaemia, also known as blood sugar level, blood sugar concentration, or blood glucose level is the measure of glucose concentrated in the blood of humans or other animals. Approximately 4 grams of glucose, a simple sugar, is present in the blo ...

monitoring for

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

management. His current research interests include the development of

nanomotors A nanomotor is a molecular or nanoscale device capable of converting energy into movement. It can typically generate forces on the order of piconewtons. While nanoparticles have been utilized by artists for centuries, such as in the famous Lycurg ...

and nanomachines, wearable non-invasive sensors, electrochemical biosensors,

bioelectronics Bioelectronics is a field of research in the convergence of biology and electronics. Definitions At the first C.E.C. Workshop, in Brussels in November 1991, bioelectronics was defined as 'the use of biological materials and biological architectu ...

, microfluidic (“

Lab-on-a-Chip A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a device that integrates one or several laboratory functions on a single integrated circuit (commonly called a "chip") of only millimeters to a few square centimeters to achieve automation and high-throughput screening. ...

”) devices, and remote sensors for environmental and security monitoring. Wang led a team that successfully merged efforts in the fields of biosensors, bioelectronics and

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

to fashion

nanocrystal A ''nanocrystal'' is a material particle having at least one dimension smaller than 100 nanometres, based on quantum dots (a nanoparticle) and composed of atoms in either a single- or poly-crystalline arrangement. The size of nanocrystals dist ...

s that can act as amplifying tags for DNA or protein biosensors. His work in the field of nanomachines, involving novel motor designs and applications, has led to the world's fastest nanomotor, the first demonstration of nanomotor operation in living organism (towards stomach and lung disorders), a novel motion-based DNA biosensing, nanomachine-enabled isolation of biological targets, such as cancer cell identification, and advanced motion control in the nanoscale. Wang has also introduced the use of body-worn flexible electrochemical sensors for non-invasive biomarker monitoring and epidermal biofuel cells harvesting sweat bioenergy including textile and epidermal-tattoo devices, microneedle-based electrochemical biosensors for real-time, pain-free quantification of circulating

metabolite In biochemistry, a metabolite is an intermediate or end product of metabolism. The term is usually used for small molecules. Metabolites have various functions, including fuel, structure, signaling, stimulatory and inhibitory effects on enzymes, c ...

s and

electrolyte An electrolyte is a medium containing ions that is electrically conducting through the movement of those ions, but not conducting electrons. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases dissolved in a polar solvent, such as water. Upon dis ...

s,. His work towards portable environmental and security sensor systems includes new 'green' bismuth electrodes for sensing toxic metals, remote submersible devices for continuous environmental monitoring and hand-held lead analyzer.

Published books

* ''Stripping Analysis: Principles, Instrumentation, and Applications'' - 1985 * ''Electrochemical Techniques in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine'' - 1988 * ''Biosensors and Chemical Sensors'' - 1992, with Peter G. Edelman * ''Analytical Electrochemistry'' - 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions from 1994, 1999, 2006 and 2023, respectively * ''Biosensors for Direct Monitoring of Environmental Pollutants in Field'' - 1997, with Dimitrios P. Nikolelis, Ulrich J. Krull and Marco Mascini * ''Electrochemistry of Nucleic Acids and Proteins'' - 2005, with Emil Paleček and Frieder W. Scheller * ''Electrochemical Sensors, Biosensors and their Biomedical Applications'' - 2007, with Xueji Zhang and Huangxian Ju * ''NanoBiosensing: Principles, Development and Application'' - 2011, with Xueji Zhang and Huangxian Ju * ''Nanomachines: Fundamentals and Applications'' - 2013 Wang has also been the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal ''Electroanalysis'', from 1988 - 2018.

Awards

* Heyrovsky Medal, Heyrovsky Institute, Prague, Czech Republic - 1994 *

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all d ...

National Award in Analytical Instrumentation, 1999 * Regents Professorship, New Mexico State University - 2001 * Manasse Chair, New Mexico State University - 2001 * Honorary Professorship,

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. Some national universities are associated with national cultural or po ...

, Cordoba, Argentina - 2004 * American Chemical Society National Award for Electrochemistry, 2006 *

Doctor honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

Complutense University The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

, Madrid, Spain - 2007 * Honorary Member, Slovenia National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana - 2007 * Fellow,

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991, and headquartered in Washington. It represents 50,000 medical and biomedical engineers, and academic institutions, private industry, ...

- 2010 * Honorary Professor,

University of Science and Technology Beijing The University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB; ), formerly known as Beijing Steel and Iron Institute () before 1988, is a national key university in Haidian District, Beijing, China. USTB's metallurgy and materials science programmes are ...

- 2011 *

, Alcala University, Alcala, Spain - 2011 * Bruno Breyer Medal of the

Royal Australian Chemical Institute The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) is both the qualifying body in Australia for professional chemists and a learned society promoting the science and practice of chemistry in all its branches. The RACI hosts conferences, seminars and ...

- 2012 *

Spiers Memorial Award Spiers Memorial Award is presented in recognition of an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of a Faraday Discussion. The award, given annually since 1929, includes £2000, a medal and a certificate, and recognizes an ...

of th
UK Royal Society of Chemistry
- 2013 * Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry - 2013 * SAIC Endowed Chair, University California San Diego - 2014 * Honorary Professor,

Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...

, PR China - 2016 * Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting Professor,

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

, Melbourne, Australia - 2015 to 2018 * Honorary Professor,

Charles University ) , image_name = Carolinum_Logo.svg , image_size = 200px , established = , type = Public, Ancient , budget = 8.9 billion CZK , rector = Milena Králíčková , faculty = 4,057 , administrative_staff = 4,026 , students = 51,438 , undergr ...

, Prague, Czech Republic - 2017 * Honorary Professor, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj, Romania - 2017 * Honorary Professor,

Comenius University Comenius University in Bratislava ( sk, Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave) is the largest university in Slovakia, with most of its faculties located in Bratislava. It was founded in 1919, shortly after the creation of Czechoslovakia. It is name ...

, Bratislava, Slovakia - 2018 * Heyrovsky Honorary Medal, Czech National Academy of Sciences - 2018 * European Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (ESEAC) Lifetime Achievement Award - 2018 * Electrochemical Society, Sensor Achievement Award - 2018 * C.N. Reilley Award, Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) - 2019 * Electrochemical Society Fellow - 2019 * Talanta Medal - 2021 * Inaugural

IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...

Analytical Chemistry Medal - 2021 * IEEE Sensors Achievement Award - 2021 * TÜBA Turkish National Academy Presidential Award - 2022 * Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry - 2022

References

External links

Joseph Wang Research Group at UC San Diego
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Joseph University of California, San Diego faculty Living people 1948 births Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering