Birth: 1966
Specialty: Nanotechnology
Major Contributions:
Director NanoBio Lab
Mustafa Prize Top Scientific Achievement Award from the Iranian Government
Granted 90 U.S. Patents
Becoming one of MIT’s youngest full professors at the age of 35, Jackie Yi-Ru Ying is one of the world’s leading experts on nanotechnology.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan she was raised in Singapore and New York City and earned her Bachelor’s of Engineering degree from Cooper Union in 1987. She continued her studies in chemical engineering at Princeton University earning an MA in 1988 and a PhD in 1991.
After a year of post-doctoral research, she joined the faculty of MIT in 1992, teaching in the Department of Chemical Engineering where she was promoted to full professor in 2001. Two years later she returned to Singapore as the first executive director of the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, a division of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.
Ying’s research at the time focused on the synthesis of advanced nanostructured materials for catalytic and biomaterial applications and her lab was responsible for several novel wet-chemical and physical vapor synthesis approaches to create nanocomposites: nanodevices with unique size-dependent characteristics. The possible applications for these new systems range from the efficient use of energy and resources to the production of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
In 2018 she stepped down from this role to lead NanoBio Lab, a multidisciplinary lab-incubator. Research at NanoBio lab focuses on nanocomposites, biomaterials, genotyping assays, agri-technology, biosystems, and fabrication of devices for detection of diseases, food pathogens, contaminants, and environmental pollutants. Part of these efforts include developing new materials that can be used for targeted drug delivery for treating cancer or infectious diseases.
Authoring close to 400 articles and the holder of more than 90 patents, Ying was elected to the Singapore Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014. The next year she was the recipient of the inaugural Mustafa Prize given for her contributions to nano-biotechnology and in 2023 she was awarded the King Faisal Prize for “contributions that make a positive difference.”
Written by Angela Goad
Sources:
IOP Science: An interview with Jackie Yi-Ru Ying: the complete multi-tasker
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