Professor Zhenan Bao stands as a preeminent leader in the field of advanced materials and flexible electronics, currently holding the distinguished position of K. K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University with courtesy appointments in Chemistry and Material Science and Engineering. Born in Nanjing, China in 1970 to a family of academics, she pursued undergraduate studies in chemistry at Nanjing University before moving to the United States in 1990. Demonstrating exceptional academic promise, she was accepted directly into the PhD program at the University of Chicago without a bachelor's degree, earning both her Master of Science in 1993 and Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry in 1995 under the supervision of Luping Yu. Following her doctoral studies, she began her professional research career at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, where she rose to become a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 2001 before joining Stanford University in 2004.
Professor Bao's pioneering research on organic field-effect transistors and organic semiconductors has fundamentally transformed the development of flexible electronics and electronic skin technologies, establishing new paradigms for human-machine interfaces. Her laboratory has produced over 800 refereed publications with an extraordinary Google Scholar H-index of 234, alongside more than 80 US patents that have enabled significant technological advancements in wearable electronics. Through her groundbreaking work on stretchable, self-healing electronic materials that mimic the sensory capabilities of human skin, she has created foundational technologies that have been commercialized through multiple startups including C3 Nano Co. whose transparent electrodes now appear in commercial smartphones worldwide. The practical impact of her research extends to medical applications through PyrAmes, another company she co-founded whose blood pressure monitoring technology is currently used in hospitals to improve patient care.
As a visionary leader in her field, Professor Bao founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative (eWEAR) in 2016 and serves as its faculty director, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration across engineering, medicine, and design. Her exceptional contributions have been recognized through election to the most prestigious scientific academies including the US National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Inventors, as well as foreign membership in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Beyond her research achievements, she actively shapes the scientific community through leadership roles including service on the Board of Directors for the Camille and Dreyfus Foundation and previous positions with the Materials Research Society. Professor Bao continues to drive innovation at the intersection of materials science and bio-inspired electronics, with her current research focused on developing next-generation wearable health monitoring systems that promise to revolutionize personalized medicine and human-computer interaction.
