249th Meeting ECS Lecturer Talks Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Joseph Wang | 249th ECS Plenary/ECS Lecturer

Joseph Wang (SAIC Endowed Chair, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Nanoegineering, Director of the Center of Wearable Sensors, and Co-Director, Center for Mobile-health Systems at the University of California San Diego) insists that his research has always focused simply on “solving problems.” Yet his work over the past 40 years has transformed the fields of wearable sensors, nanomachines, and medical diagnostics. He advanced field-based environmental monitoring and forensics by introducing “green” electrodes as non-toxic alternatives to mercury for detecting heavy metals, as well as remote submersible sensors for detecting explosives and gunshot residue. He is also expanding innovative technologies to detect, monitor, and treat disease and promote health—including minute rapidly moving catalytic nanorobots that deliver medication precisely where it is needed!

Dr. Wang is consistently ranked as one of the top engineers and top electrochemists in the world (190,000+ citations). One on one, he is charming—just ask the 800+ aspiring scientists who have graced his labs! Or learn more about his life and work in this interview leading up to his presenting the ECS Lecture, “Wearable Bioelectronic Platforms,” at the 249th ECS Meeting Plenary Session.

Read on and join us—and Joe—in Seattle, WA US, from May 24–28, 2026!

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By: Chenfeng Ke, Dartmouth College

Nanomachines are tiny molecules – more than 10,000 lined up side by side would be narrower than the diameter of a human hair – that can move when they receive an external stimulus. They can already deliver medication within a body and serve as computer memories at the microscopic level. But as machines go, they haven’t been able to do much physical work – until now.

My lab has used nano-sized building blocks to design a smart material that can perform work at a macroscopic scale, visible to the eye. A 3-D-printed lattice cube made out of polymer can lift 15 times its own weight – the equivalent of a human being lifting a car.

Nobel-winning roots are rotaxanes

The design of our new material is based on Nobel Prize-winning research that turned mechanically interlocked molecules into work-performing machines at nanoscale – things like molecular elevators and nanocars.

Rotaxanes are one of the most widely investigated of these molecules. These dumbbell-shaped molecules are capable of converting input energy – in the forms of light, heat or altered pH – into molecular movements. That’s how these kinds of molecular structures got the nickname “nanomachines.”

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