April 15, 2021

Assistant Professor Zheng Yan

Mizzou Engineering’s Zheng Yan has received the 2021 UM System Presidential Faculty Award for Career Excellence Early Career – STEM. Yan is an assistant professor, holding a joint appointment between the Department of Biological, Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, and the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering.

“It’s a great honor to me. For the last four years, I have been working really hard on research, teaching and service,” Yan said. “I think this is a great recognition for my past efforts. I really appreciate it.”

The Early Career Award is given annually to a deserving faculty member who exhibits “exceptional promise within their first seven years with the university,” according to the award’s webpage. This can include works in scholarship, research or creativity.

Yan’s pioneering research has been published in leading journals, including PNAS, Science, and Advanced Materials. His work gained worldwide notice with news articles appearing in Forbes Magazine, MSN, German National Radio, Futurity and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Additionally, he was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER grant to develop a plan for mass production for customizable wearable on-skin electronics, based on his research, in December 2020. Yan’s past and current work will hopefully lead to him reaching his primary research goal.

“I want to make a low-cost, multifunctional, smart sticker so everyone can use them to personalize their health care monitoring,” he said. “This would allow people to have their health monitored by their health care professionals without needing to leave their homes. This would be especially great during pandemics.”

Yan joined the College in 2017, having already worked on bio-integrated electronics as a postdoc researcher. His current research focus areas include bioinspired materials and electronics, human-machine interface and advanced manufacturing.