Shaopeng Wang

This fall, Shaopeng Wang is expanding the scope of his career as a research faculty member in the Biodesign Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at Arizona State University with a new faculty position in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

“I really like the research environment at Biodesign and ASU, where people from different backgrounds work together on exciting projects to improve the quality of life,” Wang says. “[This new position] will give me more chances to interact with engineering students and collaborate with engineering faculty.”

Before joining ASU in 2008, Wang worked for seven years on nanomaterials, sensors and tissue engineering projects as an industry scientist at an electronics and scientific instrumentation company.

Wang has been curious about science and technology since he was young. In high school, he was assembling radios, fixing the family television and building electrical motors from scratch. 

“I entered an engineering university, but accidentally majored in biology for my college degree,” he says. “My continued interest in technology led me to work on instrumentation-related projects during my undergraduate and graduate studies.”

Then, for his doctoral studies, Wang combined his technology interests and biology degree to work on biosensor development and has stayed in that field ever since. 

“I always feel excited when I make an instrument work or find a new solution for a sensing need,” Wang says.

His research focus is the development of optical and electrochemical biosensors and bio-analytical instruments. Wang’s work has earned more than $20 million in funding, including from multiple National Institutes of Health grants, and he has more than 100 peer-reviewed research journal paper publications. He has been issued five patents and has more than 10 patent applications pending.

Undergraduate students in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of the Fulton Schools, will find Wang teaching BME 340: Thermodynamics. Wang also plans to teach a graduate course on biosensor technologies that he says will be “open to any graduate students interested in learning about the principles and applications of different biosensors.”

Outside of the classroom, Wang enjoys playing volleyball and badminton — he was previously the faculty advisor for the ASU student badminton club.

Meet the newest faculty members of the Fulton Schools of Engineering here.