Zhenan Bao is 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 directs the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiate. 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. Bao is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, 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 Science.
Bao is known for her work on artificial electronic skin, which is enabling a new generation of skin-like electronics for regaining sense of touch for neuroprosthetics, human-friendly robots, human-machine interfaces, and seamless health monitoring devices. Bao has been named by Nature as a “Master of Materials.” She is a recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, American Chemical Society Chemistry of Materials Award 2022, Gibbs Medal 2020, Wilhelm Exner Medal 2018, and L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2017.
Bao co-founded C3 Nano and PyrAmes, which produced materials used in commercial smartphones and FDA-approved blood pressure monitors. Research inventions from her group have also been licensed as foundational technologies for multiple start-ups founded by her students.
