Kang L. Wang

Kang Lung Wang is a prominent physicist and electrical engineer in the fields of nanotechnology, semiconductors, and quantum systems.

Wang was born in Lukang, Changhua, Taiwan, in 1941. He received his BS (1964) degree from National Cheng Kung University and his MS (1966) and PhD (1970) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[1] In 1970 to 1972 he was the assistant professor at MIT. From 1972 to 1979, he worked at the General Electric Corporate Research and Development Center as a physicist and engineer. In 1979 he joined the Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA, where he is a professor and leads the Device Research Laboratory (DRL). Many of the students he has mentored, including MS and PhD candidates [1], have distinguished career in engineering and academics.[2]

Wang's research activities focus on nanotechnology and semiconductor nano devices. Specific topics include:

• nanoscale science: nanoelectronics, nanoarchitectures, and nanomagnetics
• spintronic materials and devices
• quantum systems: self-assembly growth of quantum structures and cooperative assembly of quantum dot arrays; electron spin and coherence properties of SiGe and InAs quantum structures for implementation of spin-based quantum information
• silicon-based molecular beam epitaxy; nano-epitaxy of hetero-structures
• nonvolatile electronics and low-dissipation devices
• optoelectronics, solar cells, and microwave devices

He was the inventor of strained layer MOSFET, quantum SRAM cell, and band-aligned superlattices. He holds 45 patents and has published over 700 papers.

In 2018, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) recognized Wang for his discovery of chiral Majorana fermions and his contributions to spintronics.^[2]

Wang is a leader in nanotechnology. He has been the Raytheon Chair Professor of Physical Science since 2006. He serves on the editorial board of the Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (American Scientific publishers). He currently also serves as the Director of Marco Focus Center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics, an interdisciplinary research center funded by Semiconductor Industry Association and the Department of Defense to address the need of information processing technology beyond scaled CMOS. The Center involves 12 universities across the nation with 35 participating faculty members.

He is also the director of the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics (WIN), a coordinated multi-project research institute. WIN is funded by the NRI, Intel, and the State of California. The current on-going projects are aimed at spintronics for low power applications. He currently serves as the editor-in-chief for the journal IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology.^[3] He was also the founding director of Nanoelectronics Research Facility at UCLA (established in 1989). In addition to these technical leadership contributions, he has provided academic leadership in engineering education. He was also the Dean of Engineering from 2000 to 2002 at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.^[4]

2006 – present

Raytheon Chair Professor of Physical Electronics

2006 – present

Director, Western Institute of Nanoelectronics

2011 – 2014

Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology

2007 – 2013

Associate Director, California NanoSystems Institute

2003 – 2013

Director, Marco Focus Center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics

2000–2002

Dean, School of Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

1993–1996

Chair, Electrical Engineering Department, University of California, Los Angeles

1979 – present

Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

1972–1979

Physicist/Engineer, General Electric Corporate Research and Development Center

1970–1972

Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2018: Magnetism award and Nēel Medal, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics [3]

2018: Laureate of Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan [4]

2018: Dr. Dan S. Louie lifetime achievement award [5]

2017: J. J. Ebers Award by IEEE International Electron Devices Society [6]

2017: Fellow, APS (American Physical Society)^[5]

2016: Academician of Academia Sinica, Taiwan^[6]

2015: Pan Wen Yuan Outstanding Research Award, Hsinchu, Taiwan

2012: Outstanding Alumni Award of National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

2009: Semiconductor Industry Award Research Award

2007: IBM Faculty Award

1996: Semiconductor Research Corporation Technical Excellency Award

1992: Fellow, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics)

1987–88: Guggenheim Fellow Award, Max Planck Institute, Germany

Wang, K.L. and Ovchinnikov, I., "Nanoelectronics and Nanospintronics: Fundamentals and Materials Perspective", In: Advances in Electronic Materials, Kasper, E., Mussig, H- J. and Grimmeiss, H. (Eds.), Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland, Vol. 608, pp. 133–158 (2009)

Wang, K.L., Galatsis, K., Ostroumov, R., Ozkan, M., Likharev, K. and Botros, Y., "Chapter 10: Nanoarchitectonics: Advances in Nanoelectronics", In: Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering, and Technology, Second Edition, Goddard, W., Brenner, D.W., Lyshevski, S.E. and Iafrate, G.J. (Eds.), CRC Press, pp. 10.1–10.24 (2007)

Eshaghian-Wilner, M. M., Flood, A. H., Khitun, A., Stoddart, J. F., Wang, K.L., "Chapter 14. Molecular and Nanoscale Computing and Technology", In: Handbook of Nature- Inspired and Innovative Computing: Integrating Classical Models with Emerging Technologies, Zomaya, A.Y. (Ed.), USA: Springer-Verlag, 477–510 (2006)

Wang, K.L. and Balandin, A.A., editors, The Handbook of Semiconductor Nanostructures and Nanodevices, America Scientific Publishers, 2005

• Evelyn Wang, Wang's daughter, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• UCLA Device Research Laboratory
• UCLA Electrical Engineering
• Marco Focus Center on Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics
• Westerns Institute of Nanoelectronics
• IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology