Zhenan Bao, the K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, with courtesy appointments in chemistry and materials science and engineering, presented two thought-provoking talks for the R.F. Smith School’s annual two-day Julian C. Smith lecture series.
The first lecture, “Learning from Skin: From Materials, Sensing Functions to Neuromorphic Engineering,” described the research challenges and developments in her work toward materials that combine skin-like functions with electronic properties. A key discovery was nano-confined polymer semiconductors and conductors, which overcome the issue of charge transport in polymer materials, a breakthrough that enabled skin-like functions while improving charge transport. This understanding helped her create new ways to directly pattern and manufacture soft, stretchable electronic circuits. Her team also built a range of soft sensors that can measure things like pressure, movement, temperature, and even signals from the body and brain. These circuits and sensors form the basis for soft bioelectronics, opening up new possibilities for medical devices, robotics and wearable tech.
In her second lecture, “Functional Dynamic Polymer Networks Based on Periodically Placed Non-covalent Dynamic Bonds,” Bao described how polymers made from dynamic bonds can have a range of interesting and tunable mechanical properties, like being tough, stretchy, self-healing or able to change shape on demand. By taking a cue from nature, where weak interactions between molecules lead to highly organized structures that do specific jobs, Bao and her team created flexible polymer chains with dynamic bonds placed at regular intervals and pointing in specific directions. By studying how these polymers’ structures relate to their properties, they found some exciting potential uses for these new polymers, such as making self-healing electronics, “morphing” electronics, or reconfigurable soft robots.
Bao directs the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative. She served as department chair of chemical engineering from 2018-2022 and interim chair from April to September 2025. Before joining Stanford in 2004, she was a distinguished member of technical staff in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. Bao holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago and is a member of several National Academies. She has received many awards for her work on artificial electronic skin, including the VinFuture Prize and the ACS Chemistry of Materials Award. She co-founded C3 Nano (acquired by Du Pont) and PyrAmes, which produced materials used in commercial smartphones and FDA-approved blood pressure monitors. Research inventions from her group have also been licensed to multiple startups.