Prof. Yong Zhang

Professor Yong Zhang is currently a Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Head of Department of Biomedical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong. Before he joined CityU, he had over 20 years of working experience in Department of Biomedical Engineering at National University of Singapore (NUS) as a senior researcher, educator and administrative leader. He joined NUS as an Assistant Professor in Oct 2002 and was promoted to Associate Professor in Jan 2007, to Full Professor in 2013 and then Provost’s Chair Professor in 2017. On research, he developed new technology for wireless phototherapy and point-of-care diagnostics based on implantable light-emitting materials and devices. His publications in top-tier journals (Nature Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, PNAS, Nature Protocols, Advanced Materials, Chemical Reviews, Chemical Society Reviews, etc.), many plenary/keynote/invited talks in international conferences, his contribution to academic communities and professional societies, and his effort in technology commercialization, made him an internationally recognized researcher. His research achievements were featured in Nature, The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao, Innovation Magazine, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) Asia Materials and Nanotechweb, etc. He received a number of awards such as Humboldt Research Award (2021) and IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award (twice, 2012, 2020). He was interviewed by Thomson Reuters Science Watch for his highly cited and hot research papers, elected Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and Fellow of Singapore Academy of Engineering (FSAEng), named as Global Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics, and listed on World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University and Elsevier BV. On education, in the past 20 years, Professor Zhang provided mentoring and training to many PhD/undergraduate students and young researchers with great diversity of backgrounds from many different countries in Asia, Europe and America. Under his mentoring, these students published research articles in top tier journals such as PNAS and received awards such as President Graduate Fellowship, Best Poster Award, Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors' Award and EMedIC Global (Engineering Medical Innovation Global Competition) Award. He was a recipient of Outstanding Mentor Award given by Singapore Ministry of Education. On service, Professor Zhang served as the Deputy Head of NUS Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chair of Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee (FPTC) and Faculty Awards Committee, Admission Committee Chair and EXCO member of NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering (NGS), and member of University Promotion and Tenure Committee (UPTC) and University Research Committee (URC). Professor Zhang also provided a lot of service to professional and scientific community by serving as the conference chair, grant review panel member, journal editor or editorial board member, and so on. For more information, see group website: https://www.yongzhanglab.com