# Joseph Wang

Joseph Wang (born 1948) is an American biomedical engineer and inventor. He is a Distinguished Professor, SAIC Endowed Chair, and former Chair of Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano-Technology Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Wang 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).

## Biography

Wang was awarded a Ph.D. in 1978 and continued as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison until 1980. He then joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at New Mexico State University, a position that he maintained until 2004. At NMSU, he became a Regents Professor 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 and as a professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Arizona State University (ASU). Later in 2008, he joined UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering, serving as Chair of the Nano-Technology engineering Department between 2014 and 2019. He is the Director of the Center of Wearable Sensors (CWS) and of the Center of Mobile Devices at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).
Wang founded the journal Electroanalysis (published by Wiley-VCH) in 1988, serving as its editor-in-chief until 2018.
Wang and his research teams have been described in over 1280 research papers and reviews, cited over 178,000 times, and holds an H-index of 214 according to Google Scholar. He has supervised 40 PhD students and over 350 researchers and visiting students. Wang is the author of 12 books and holds 65 patents.
He is a member of the US National Academy of Inventors, being elected in the class of 2022, of the European Academy of Engineering (EAE), of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, of the National Academy of Albania, and of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), having received the TÜBA Presidential Science Award in 2022 for "his original, pioneering and groundbreaking research in basic and engineering sciences due to inventions that have a strong and widespread worldwide impact on biosensors, nano bioelectronics, wearable sensors, micro-robotics and nanomotors that push the boundaries of health systems." Woxsen University (in India) has named their Department of Chemistry after Joseph Wang: "Joseph Wang Department of Chemistry."

## 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. His current research includes the development of nanomotors and nanomachines, wearable non-invasive sensors, electrochemical biosensors, bioelectronics, microfluidic (“Lab-on-a-Chip”) devices, and remote sensors for environmental and security monitoring.
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, the first demonstration of nanomotor operation in a living organism (towards treating stomach and lung disorders), embedding microrobots within oral pills, 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 that harvest sweat bioenergy, including textile and epidermal-tattoo devices, touch-based fingertip sweat sensing, microneedle-based electrochemical biosensors for quantification of circulating metabolites and electrolytes. 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, 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.
* American Chemical Society National Award in Analytical Instrumentation, 1999.
* Regents Professorship, New Mexico State University, 2001.
* Manasse Chair, New Mexico State University, 2001.
* Honorary Professorship, National University, Cordoba, Argentina, 2004.
* American Chemical Society National Award for Electrochemistry, 2006.
* Doctor honoris causa, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, 2007.
* Honorary Member, Slovenia National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, 2007.
* Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, 2010.
* Honorary Professor, University of Science and Technology Beijing, 2011.
* Doctor honoris causa, Alcala University, Alcala, Spain, 2011.
* Bruno Breyer Medal of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, 2012.
* Spiers Memorial Award of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013.
* Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013.
* SAIC Endowed Chair, University California San Diego, 2014.
* Honorary Professor, Fudan University, PR China, 2016.
* Sir Louis Matheson Distinguished Visiting professor, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 2015 to 2018.
* Honorary Professor, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 2017.
* Honorary Professor, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj, Romania, 2017.
* Honorary Professor, Comenius University, 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 Analytical Chemistry Medal, 2021.
* IEEE Sensors Achievement Award, 2021.
* TÜBA Turkish National Academy Presidential Award, 2022.
* Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2022.
* American Chemical Society National Award for Analytical Chemistry, 2024.
* Fellow of Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA).