Skin-Inspired Organic Electronics (Max Planck Lecture)

• Zhenan Bao (K.K. Lee Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering)

• Stanford University

In 2016, the scientific journal Nature named Zhenan Bao one of the ten people who matter to the planet’s future. It took many years of hard work and determination to receive this prestigious accolade. The MPI-IS directors are therefore thrilled to welcome Zhenan Bao to our institute on July 22nd – a multi-award winning chemist, chemical engineer and material scientist who will travel to Stuttgart to be the main speaker at this year’s Max Planck Lecture. In her talk “Skin-Inspired Organic Electronics”, Zhenan Bao will highlight the right formula and the complex material properties it takes to build electronic circuits that are no longer made of silicon but plastics, and that mimic a human’s largest organ – technology that will revolutionize not only the electronics but also the medical industry.

Three decades prior to the Nature article, as a young woman, Zhenan Bao left China without speaking a word of English to pursue a better life in the US and live the American dream. Coming from an immigrant family with little financial backing, she studied while holding down two jobs. Zhenan Bao, whose father was also a scientist, knew that if she did well, she would get into a good university. In 1995, she received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago. She started working as a technical staff in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies from 1995-2004.

The obsession to find new materials that would revolutionize electronic devices brought her to Stanford University in 2004: Zhenan Bao became a professor at this ivy-league university, teaching and researching in the heart of Silicon Valley where she and her team completely reinvent electronics. Zhenan Bao and her team of around 50 scientists from across the world develop stretchable plastics that are biodegradable and self-healing and as sensible as human skin with all its many natural haptic sensors. Zhenan Bao works on sensors that can help restore the sense of touch to people who are paralyzed for them to be able to again sense and feel their environment. What sounds like science fiction is perhaps only a few years away from reaching the market. Zhenan Bao has over 700 refereed publications and over 100 US patents with a Google Scholar H-Index of 190.

Zhenan Bao is also an outstanding entrepreneur. She is a co-founder and on the Board of Directors for PyrAmes and for C3 Nano, which is a San Francisco based start-up that makes flexible and transparent flat screens only a few millimeters wide. Tablets or smart phones could become as bendable as a kid’s toy. Solar cells could incorporate this biodegradable material, various electronic companies and several car companies line up to buy the product. Zhenan also serves as an advising Partner for Fusion Venture Capital and is an advisor for multiple start-ups.

Zhenan Bao is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. She is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is a Fellow of MRS, ACS, AAAS, SPIE, ACS PMSE and ACS POLY.

Zhenan Bao is the inaugural recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, the ACS Chemistry of Materials Award 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AICHE Alpha Chi Sigma Award 2021, ACS Central Science Disruptor and Innovator Prize in 2020, Gibbs Medal by the Chicago session of ACS in 2020, Wilhelm Exner Medal by Austrian Federal Minister of Science 2018, ACS Award on Applied Polymer Science 2017, L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award in the Physical Sciences 2017, AICHE Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering in 2014, ACS Carl Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award in 2013, ACS Cope Scholar Award in 2011, Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize in 2009, IUPAC Creativity in Applied Polymer Science Prize in 2008.

Biography: Zhenan Bao is Department Chair and K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering, and by courtesy, a Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Bao founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiate (eWEAR) in 2016 and serves as the faculty director. Prior to joining Stanford in 2004, she was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies from 1995-2004. She received her Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1995. She has over 700 refereed publications and over 100 US patents with a Google Scholar H-Index of 190. Bao is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. She is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She is a Fellow of MRS, ACS, AAAS, SPIE, ACS PMSE and ACS POLY. Bao is the inaugural recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, the ACS Chemistry of Materials Award 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AICHE Alpha Chi Sigma Award 2021, ACS Central Science Disruptor and Innovator Prize in 2020, Gibbs Medal by the Chicago session of ACS in 2020, Wilhelm Exner Medal by Austrian Federal Minister of Science 2018, ACS Award on Applied Polymer Science 2017, L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award in the Physical Sciences 2017, AICHE Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering in 2014, ACS Carl Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award in 2013, ACS Cope Scholar Award in 2011, Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize in 2009, IUPAC Creativity in Applied Polymer Science Prize in 2008. Bao is a co-founder and on the Board of Directors for C3 Nano and PyrAmes, both are silicon-valley venture funded start-ups. She serves as an advising Partner for Fusion Venture Capital and advisors for multiple start-ups.