Selected News

Nov. 12, 2025, our group’s postdoctoral researcher Yihao Zhou and PhD student Guorui Chen were included on Clarivate’s 2025 Highly Cited Researchers list. Each selected researcher has multiple papers that rank among the top 1% most cited in their field over the past decade. This year, a total of 7,131 Highly Cited Researcher recognitions were awarded worldwide. See [UCLA News]

Jun. 2, 2025, we reported a magnetoelastic gel pen for personalized handwriting analysis and Parkinson’s disease diagnostics. It represents a low-cost, widely disseminable and reliable technology for resource-limited areas. It was published in Nature Chemical Engineering, and highlighted as the Front Cover of Volume 2 Issue 6. Read More from [UCLA News]

Aug. 1st, 2025, Xun Zhao was appointed as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the prestigious University of Virginia. He joined our group in 2019, earned his Ph.D. in 2024, and subsequently continued as a postdoctoral scholar. Xun has published more than 75 papers during his time with us. His newly established group now has multiple openings. Read more from [UVA]

Jun. 11th, 2025, Dr. Chen received the prestigious ACS Nano Lectureship Award, which recognizes early-career investigators who have demonstrated exceptional research achievements in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The award is conferred upon individuals whose work has made substantial and influential contributions to the advancement of the field. Read more from [UCLA]

Apr. 9th, 2025, Dr. Chen received the prestigious MRS Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award. This highly competitive award recognizes one early-career scientist per year globally for the outstanding works in materials research. The recipient must show exceptional promise as a developing leader in their materials research area. Read More from [UCLA] [Award Website].

Feb. 5th, 2025, Dr. Chen received the Hisako Terasaki Young Innovator Award. The award recognizes early-career scientists who have made significant contributions to biomedical science by creating novel or markedly improved technologies that show great promise for high-impact translation. Dr. Chen will give a Hisako Terasaki Award Lecture in March. Read More from [AAAS].

Oct. 25th, 2024, Dr. Chen received the inaugural Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering (AAASE) Rising Star Award. It is presented to early-career individuals who have made outstanding contributions in science and engineering. It will be recognized at the AAASE Annual Summit at the Beckman Center of National Academies in Irvine in November. Read More from [AAASE].

Jul. 23th, 2024, the Voice of America carried out an on-site interview of our research group in the UCLA Department of Bioengineering. They showed great interest in our soft magnetoelastic bioelectronics. We are currently pioneering research effort in discovering giant magnetoelastic effects in soft systems for bioelectronics. The interview video can be found from [Voice of America].

Apr. 15th, 2024, our review paper on motion artefact management for soft bioelectronics has been published on Nature Reviews Bioengineering. In this Review, we discuss how body activities can affect the soft bioelectronic–tissue interface and result in motion artefact signals. We also proposed strategies to alleviate them. This story was highlighted as the Front Cover of the journal.

Mar. 24th, 2024, Dr. Chen was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure by the University of California, Los Angeles. I truly appreciate the all-the-way support from my department, my students, my collaborators, my friends, and my family. The staying with UCLA Bioengineering is joyful and fruitful. Here is the Summary Statement from Faculty Ad Hoc Committee that I would like to share.

Jul. 20th, 2023, Dr. Chen was luckily recognized as the Georgia Tech Alumni 40 Under 40. This annual program showcases how Georgia Tech alumni impact every field worldwide and work to improve the way we live through their diligence and expertise from an early age. The full list can be found [Here]. Read More from [UCLA Bioengineering News]

Jun. 23rd, 2023, Dr. Chen received the 2023 Shu Chien Early Career Award during the 23rd Annual University of California (UC) Systemwide Bioengineering Symposium, which was held at UC Berkeley this year. It is to recognize a pre-tenured faculty across the 10 UC campuses who demonstrates outstanding scholarly achievement. Read More from [UCLA Bioengineering News]

May 25th, 2023, by mimicking the process spiders use to spin silk, our work on developing a simple and cost-effective process to create soft, electrically conductive fibers at room temperature and atmospheric pressure was published in Nature Electronics, and highlighted as the Front Cover of Volume 6 Issue 5. Read More from [UCLA News]

May 6th, 2023, Dr. Chen was granted the V. M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award. It is one of the highest honors in UCLA Samueli School of Engineering to recognize one faculty per year who demonstrated excellence in research that addresses major societal challenges through innovative techniques and in the engagement of students. Please read [UCLA News].

Feb. 23rd, 2023, our Ph.D. students Guorui Chen and Xun Zhao win the prestigious Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Award. MRS Graduate Student Awards are intended to honor graduate students whose academic achievements and current materials research display a high level of excellence and distinction. Read More from [UCLA Bioengineering News]

Jan. 15th, 2023, we were invited to contribute 4 comprehensive review articles to the smart textiles community for healthcare and sustainability, including 1 published in Nature Electronics, 2 published in Chemical Reviews (Two Front Covers Highlight), a 4th published in Chemical Society Reviews (Front Cover Highlight). Please Read More from the highlight [UCLA Bioengineering News]

Nov. 15th, 2022, Dr. Chen was identified to be one of the world’s most influential researchers in the field of materials science by the Web of Science Group and continues to be on the global list of Highly Cited Researchers together with the other 39 UCLA faculty members. Read More from [UCLA University News] and [UCLA Samueli Newsroom]

Feb. 9th, 2022, our invited review paper on energy textile wearable point of care was published on Chemical Reviews and was highlighted as the Front Main Cover. This work systematically reviewed the textile sensors, textile therapeutic devices, and textile protective devices for point-of-care systems. This review paper soon becomes a Highly Cited Paper & Hot Paper on the Web of Science.

Jun. 6th, 2022, Dr. Chen was granted the ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award. It recognizes the early-career researchers who have had a significant impact on polymer science and engineering. Dr. Chen will be presented with the award in August at the ACS Fall National Meeting in Chicago. Please see [UCLA Samueli Newsroom].

Mar. 28th, 2022, our invited review paper on smart textiles for personalized healthcare was published on Nature Electronics. This review highlights the cross-collaboration and efforts in both academia and industry for the transition of textiles to commercial medical devices. This review paper soon becomes a Highly Cited Paper & Hot Paper in the Web of Science.

Dec. 3rd, 2021, our research paper on wearable cost-effective, eco-friendly zinc ion fiber batteries was published on Science Advances and was highlighted as the Front Cover. It could seamlessly be integrated into a multifunctional on-body e-textile, which provides a stable power unit for continuous and simultaneous heart rate, temperature, humidity, and altitude monitoring. See [UCLA BioE].

Nov. 26th, 2021, Dr. Chen was granted the Materials Today Rising Star Award. It recognizes early career researchers in materials science and engineering who have demonstrated themselves to be exceptionally capable researchers with the potential to become future leaders in the field. It will comprise an honorarium of USD 1000 and an invited review article for Materials Today. See [UCLA BioE].

Nov. 16th, 2021, Dr. Chen was identified to be one of the world’s most influential researchers in the field of materials science by the Web of Science Group and continues to be on the global list of Highly Cited Researchers together with the other 12 Professors in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Read More from [UCLA Samueli Newsroom] and [UCLA University News].

Mar. 24th, 2021, our wearable sign-to-speech translation work that was published on Nature Electronics, was selected and highlighted by UCLA Chancellor Gene Block as Breakthroughs and Discoveries. The Chancellor highlights a few UCLA breakthroughs and discoveries that illustrate the incredible reach and continued impact of our scholarship. Please read more from [UCLA Breakthroughs]

Oct. 19th, 2021, Dr. Chen was made the list of The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University among all the scientists globally across the 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields. He was ranked 291th in the sub-field of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology in the world. The ranking is based on the standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, and so on. Full data please read [Mendeley Data] and [Article for Data Explanation]

Aug. 31st, 2021, Dr. Chen was recognized as Advanced Materials Rising Stars, which are individually nominated by the editorial team in recognition of their potential to influence future directions in materials science. A research article was invited to showcase the outstanding work of recognized researchers of their independent careers. Read More via [Research Article][Front Cover][Rising Star].

Jul. 23th, 2021, Dr. Chen received the Chem. Soc. Rev. Emerging Investigators Award. It showcases research carried out by internationally recognized early-stage scientists who are making outstanding contributions to their respective fields. Dr. Chen was invited to write a review article and was selected as the Front Cover. Read more from [Review Article] and [Front Cover].

Jul. 10th, 2021, Dr. Chen was highlighted by the UCLA Technology Development Group, which serves as a campus-wide gateway to Innovation, Research, and Entrepreneurship. The conversation was published in Volume 8 of UCLA Innovation Magazine, with an article title "Catch up with wearables expert Jun Chen". Read More from [UCLA TDG Innovation Magazine]

Jun. 29th, 2021, Dr. Chen was granted the UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows Award. The award aims to provide support and encouragement for the research of promising Assistant Professors who show capacity for great distinction in their research, in hopes of promoting career advancement and enhancing their progress toward tenure. Read More from [Hellman Fellows][UCLA News]

May 17th, 2021, Dr. Chen was highlighted as 30 Life Sciences Leaders To Watch by In Vivo. In Vivo, as part of Informa, has highlighted entrepreneurs and innovators who represent the next wave of creativity in health care, make waves, and challenge traditional structures across the biopharma and medtech sectors. Read More from [30 Rising Leaders] [Personal Interview: PDF] [UCLA BioE]

Apr. 13th, 2021, our Ph.D. candidate Alberto Libanori was granted the 2021 Engineering Fellowship from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. Super congratulations. Another Ph.D. candidate Trinny Tat in our group has received the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, one of the country’s most prestigious honors for graduate students beginning their studies. She is one of the two NDSEG Fellows at UCLA. Read more from [UCLA News].

Feb. 21th, 2021, Dr. Chen was made the list of The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University among all the scientists globally across the 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields. He was ranked 571th in the sub-field of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology. The ranking is based on the standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, and so on. Full data please read [Mendeley Data] and [Article for Data Explanation]

Feb. 14th, 2021, Dr. Chen has been placed the 2nd Most Influential Researcher globally in the field of nanogenerators, right behind the field pioneer, Prof. Zhong Lin Wang, according to a recent study entitled "Towards smart cities powered by nanogenerators: Bibliometric and machine learning-based analysis". The result was obtained via a principal component analysis of the bibliometric data. Please read the full paper for more details [Nano Energy 2021, 83, 105844].

Jan. 28th, 2021, Dr. Chen received the Nanoscale Emerging Investigators Award from The Royal Society of Chemistry. It highlights the 2021’s rising stars of nanoscience & nanotechnology research. Dr. Chen was invited to write a review about self-powered chemical sensing that was selected as the Front Cover. Read more from [The Review] and [Front Cover].

Jan. 20th, 2021, our work on the wearable sign-to-speech translation made the list of ALTMETRIC TOP 100, an annual list of the publications that have most captured the public’s imagination each year, based on the data collected by Altmetric. Altmetric tracked 87.7 million mentions of 3.4 million works in 2020 and selected out 100 most discussed articles across 20 disciplines.

Dec. 24th, 2020, our work on wearable sign-to-speech translation was selected as the Top 10 Science Stories of 2020 by Ontario Science Centre, which has rounded up 10 science gems based on the criteria that they push the boundaries of science to help us learn about our past, benefit our future and add wonder to our present. More introduction from [BT Interviews].

Dec. 4th, 2020, Dr. Chen received the ACS Nano Rising Stars Lectureship Award from the American Chemical Society. The ACS Nano Rising Stars are invited to give globally broadcast iCANX lectures, serve as an advisory board member of ACS Nano, and write a forward-looking Perspective/ Review for the journal. Read More from [UCLA Bioengineering News] and [iCANX Talks].

Nov. 18th, 2020, Dr. Chen was identified to be one of the world’s most influential researchers in the field of materials science by the Web of Science Group and continues to be on the global list of Highly Cited Researchers together with the other 8 Professors in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Read More from [UCLA Samueli Newsroom] and [UCLA University News].

Sep. 1st, 2020, Dr. Chen was granted the Okawa Foundation Research Award for his contribution to smart textiles for personalized healthcare. Each winner will be granted 10,000 dollars. Dr. Chen was the only one in 2020 from UCLA together with other 6 U.S. professors from UC Berkeley, Stanford, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Southern California.

Jun. 29th, 2020, our work on wearable sign-to-speech translation using machine-learning-assisted stretchable sensor arrays was published in Nature Electronics. This work was highlighted by Science [From My Hand to Your Ears, Science 2020, 369, 520], and Nature Electronics [Do Deaf Communities Actually Want Sign Language Gloves? Nat. Electron. 2020, 3, 512], previewed by Prof. John Rogers [Matter 2020, 3, 337], interviewed by [NPR], and covered by media over 200 times, including [abc] [CNN] [NBC] [UCLA][UC News] [ScienceDaily].

Mar. 23rd, 2020, our invited review paper on energy harvesting textiles was published on Chemical Reviews and was highlighted as the Front Main Cover. This review systematically discussed energy harvesting textiles as sustainable power sources for wearable bioelectronics. This review paper soon becomes a Highly Cited Paper & Hot Paper in the Web of Science(more than 450 times).

Nov. 19th, 2019, Dr. Chen was identified to be one of the world’s most influential researchers in the field of materials science by the Web of Science Group, and on the global list of Highly Cited Researchers together with the other 11 Full Professors in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Read More from [UCLA Samueli Newsroom] and [UCLA University News].

Sep. 1st, 2019, Dr. Chen was invited to be an Associate Editor of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, an Elsevier journal established in 1985. With a current Impact Factor of 12.6, an acceptance rate of 16.3%, and around 1000 publications per year, Biosensors & Bioelectronics is in the top quartile of the analytical chemistry, biophysics, biotechnology & applied microbiology, electrochemistry, and nanoscience categories. It is ranked #2/45 in Electrochemistry, #3/137 in Biophysics, #7/293 in Biotechnology, #6/252 in Biomedical Engineering.

Sep. 12th, 2016, our work on smart textile for simultaneously harvesting solar and mechanical energy was published in Nature Energy. This work was selected as a Nature Research Highlights (Fabric Harvests Two Energy Forms, Nature 2016, 537, 283), and covered by media around the world over 200 times, including[ScienceDaily][YaHoo][People][NanoWerk][Materials Today][Xinhua Net][Big News Network].

Feb. 9th, 2018, the large-scale radiative cooling fabric work was published in Nature Sustainability. It could contribute to save up to 23% cooling energy in the summer time. This work was highlighted by Science [Scaling Up Textiles that Cool Down, Science 2018, 360, 616]. The related patent was licensed and filed around the world, including USA, China, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Brazil, European Associates, Mexico, India, Canada, Indonesia, Spain, and so on.