He received B.S. from the Science and Technology University of Beijing in 1995, M.S. from Lanzhou Jiao Tong University (1998) and Ph.D. from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2001). Then he worked as a postdoctor in the department of physics at SJTU for two years. In 2003 he went to the school of materials science and engineering at SJTU. Dr.Wan, as a visiting scholar, studied and worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 2007 to 2008.