Joseph Wang

Joseph Wang (born 1948) is an American biomedical engineer and inventor. He is a Distinguished Professor, SAIC Endowed Chair, and a former Chair of the Department of Chemical and Nano-Technology Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Wang currently serves as the director of the UCSD Center for Wearable Sensors and as the co-director of the UCSD Center for Mobile Health Systems and Applications (CMSA).^[1]

Joseph Wang
Prof. Wang at the University of California San Diego in 2023
Born	1948 (age 76–77)
Nationality	American
Scientific career
Fields	Nanotechnology, nanomachines, electrochemistry, biosensors
Institutions	University of California, San Diego

Biography

Wang was awarded a Ph.D. in 1978 and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison until 1980.^[2]

In 1980, he joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at New Mexico State University (NMSU), where he remained until 2004. During his tenure at NMSU, he was appointed Regents Professor and held the Manasse Chair from 2001 to 2004.^[2]

From 2004 to 2008, he served as the director of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at the Biodesign Institute and as a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Arizona State University (ASU).

In 2008, he joined the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where he served as Chair of the Nano-Technology Engineering Department from 2014 to 2019.^[2]

He is the Director of the Center of Wearable Sensors (CWS) and the Center of Mobile Devices at UCSD.

Wang founded the journal Electroanalysis (published by Wiley-VCH) in 1988 and served as its editor-in-chief until 2018.^[3]

He has authored or co-authored over 1,280 research papers and reviews,^[3] which have been cited more than 178,000 times, with n H-index of 216 according to Google Scholar.^[4] He has supervised 40 PhD students and mentored over 350 researchers and visiting students.^[3] Wang is the author of 12 books and holds 65 patents.^[1]

He is a member of several prestigious academies, including the US National Academy of Inventors (elected in the class of 2022),^[5] the European Academy of Engineering (EAE), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts(EASA), of the National Academy of Albania, and of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA).

In 2022, he was honored with the esteemed TÜBA Presidential Science Award for "his original, pioneering and groundbreaking research in basic and engineering sciences". The award recognized his inventions that have a strong and widespread worldwide impact on biosensors, nano bioelectronics, wearable sensors, micro-robotics, and nanomotors, which significantly push the boundaries of health systems.^[3]

Woxsen University in India named their Department of Chemistry after Wang.

Fields of research

Wang's early research focused on electrochemical biosensors and detectors for clinical diagnostics and environmental monitoring, mainly on blood glucose monitoring for diabetes management.^[6] His current research includes the development of nanomotors and nanomachines, wearable non-invasive sensors, electrochemical biosensors,^[7][8] bioelectronics, microfluidic (“Lab-on-a-Chip”) devices, and remote sensors for environmental and security monitoring.^[9]

Wang led a team that combined efforts in the fields of biosensors, bioelectronics, and nanotechnology to fashion nanocrystals 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 a fast nanomotor,^[10] the first demonstration of nanomotor operation in a living organism (towards treating stomach and lung disorders), embedding microrobots within oral pills,^[11] a novel motion-based DNA biosensing,^[12] nanomachine-enabled isolation of biological targets, such as cancer cell identification,^[13] and advanced motion control in the nanoscale.^[14]

Wang has also introduced the use of body-worn flexible electrochemical sensors for non-invasive biomarker monitoring and epidermal biofuel cells that harvest sweat bioenergy,^[15] including textile and epidermal-tattoo devices, touch-based fingertip sweat sensing, microneedle-based electrochemical biosensors for quantification of circulating metabolites and electrolytes.^[16] He introduced multi-modal sensing platforms that offer simultaneous real-time monitoring of chemical markers, ECG, EEG, and vital signs, such as blood pressure. Wang also introduced on-body microgrid systems for managing the power requirements of wearable sensor platforms. His work towards portable environmental and security sensor systems includes new 'green' bismuth electrodes for sensing toxic metals,^[17] remote submersible devices for continuous environmental monitoring, and a 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. Nicolelis, 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
• Nano Biosensing: 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.^[18]
• American Chemical Society National Award in Analytical Instrumentation, 1999.^[19]
• Regents Professorship, New Mexico State University, 2001.
• Manasse Chair, New Mexico State University, 2001.
• Honorary Professorship, National University, Cordoba, Argentina, 2004.^[18]
• American Chemical Society National Award for Electrochemistry, 2006.^[20]
• Doctor honoris causa, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, 2007.^[18]
• Honorary Member, Slovenia National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, 2007.^[18]
• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2010.^[21]
• Honorary Professor, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 2011.^[18]
• Doctor honoris causa, Alcala University, Alcala, Spain, 2011.^[18]
• Bruno Breyer Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 2012.^[22]
• Spiers Memorial Award of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013.^[18]
• Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013.^[23]
• SAIC Endowed Chair, University California San Diego, 2014.
• Honorary Professor, Fudan University, PR China, 2016.^[18]
• Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting professor, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 2015 to 2018.^[24]
• Honorary Professor, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 2017.^[18]
• Honorary Professor, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj, Romania, 2017.^[18]
• Honorary Professor, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2018.^[18]
• Heyrovsky Honorary Medal, Czech National Academy of Sciences, 2018.^[18]
• European Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (ESEAC) Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018.^[25]
• Electrochemical Society, Sensor Achievement Award, 2018.^[26]
• C.N. Reilley Award, Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC), 2019.^[27]
• Electrochemical Society Fellow, 2019.^[28]
• Talanta Medal, 2021.^[18]
• Inaugural IUPAC Analytical Chemistry Medal, 2021.^[29]
• IEEE Sensors Achievement Award, 2021.^[30]
• TÜBA Turkish National Academy Presidential Award, 2022.^[3]
• Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2022.^[31]
• American Chemical Society National Award for Analytical Chemistry, 2024.
• Fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA).