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Zhenan Bao, K.K. Lee Professor in Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, holds courtesy appointments in the departments of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Bioengineering within the School of Engineering. She received her MS in Chemistry in 1993 and PhD in Chemistry in 1995 from the University of Chicago. Bao began her professional career at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies in 1995, where she advanced to Distinguished Member of Technical Staff by 2001. In 2004, she joined the Stanford faculty. From 2018 to 2022 and resuming in 2025, she served as Department Chair of Chemical Engineering. Bao founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative (eWEAR) in 2016 and continues as its faculty director. She is also an Investigator at CZ Biohub - San Francisco, an Innovation Investigator at Arc Institute, and serves on the boards of several organizations, including the Camille and Dreyfus Foundation.
Her research centers on developing skin-inspired electronics, stretchable polymer semiconductors, and advanced materials for soft robotics, wearable and implantable electronics targeting precision health, mental health monitoring, neuroscience tools, and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. At Stanford, Bao pioneered molecular design concepts and fabrication processes, notably discovering the nano-confinement effect in conjugated polymer blends, which laid the groundwork for skin-inspired electronic materials and devices. Key developments from her group include neuromorphic e-skins capable of sensing force and temperature while communicating with the brain, wireless patches for wound healing, soft NeuroString devices for neurochemical monitoring in the brain and gut, meta-learned skin sensors for body movement analysis, and reconfigurable self-healing electronic skins. Bao has authored more than 800 refereed publications, secured over 80 US patents, and achieved a Google Scholar h-index of 237. Her accolades include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2024, the inaugural VinFuture Prize for Female Innovator in 2022, ACS Award in the Chemistry of Materials in 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AIChE Alpha Chi Sigma Award in 2021, L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science North America Laureate in 2017, and Wilhelm Exner Medal in 2018. She has held leadership roles such as member of the Executive Board of Directors for the Materials Research Society and Executive Committee Member for the Polymer Materials Science and Engineering division of the American Chemical Society.
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