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Principal Investigator
Jun CHEN -NEST.jpg

Dr. Jun Chen is currently an associate professor with tenure in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2016, followed by postdoctoral studies at Stanford University. His current research focuses on soft matter innovation for novel bioelectronics. With a current h-index of 118, he was identified to be one of the world's most influential researchers in the field of materials science in Web of Science. 

 

He has published 2 books, 3 book chapters, 330 journal articles, and 230 of them are as corresponding authors in Nature Reviews Bioengineering (1), Nature Materials (2), Nature Electronics (8), Nature Biomedical Engineering (1), Chemical Reviews (2), Chemical Society Reviews (2), Nature Communications (8), Science Advances(3), Joule (3), Matter (18), Advanced Materials (16), ACS Nano (18), and many others. He also filed 17 US patents and licensed 1. These works were highlighted by Nature and Science 7 times and worldwide media over 1,200 times in total, including ABC, BBC, NBC, CNN, NPR, VOA, The Wall Street Journal, and Scientific American. 

Honors & Awards 

2025          BMES CMBE Rising Star Award    

2024          Asian American Academy of Science and Engineering (AAASE) Rising Star Award 

2024          Inaugural WACBE-BMES Young Investigator Award

2024          Stephanie L Kwolek Prize (Royal Society of Chemistry Materials Chemistry Horizon Prize)

2024          ASME Rising Star of Mechanical Engineering 

2024          BME Rising Stars (The 18th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering)

2024          UCLA Innovation Fellows

2023          Georgia Tech Alumni 40 Under 40 

2023          Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award

2023          American Heart Association Innovative Project Award

2023          American Heart Association Transformational Project Award

2023          American Heart Association's Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award

2023          Shu Chien Early Career Award (1 Pre-Tenure Faculty Per Year Across 10 UC Campuses)

2023          V. M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award (1 Faculty Per Year in UCLA Samueli School of Engineering)

2023          UCLA Faculty Mentor Award (1 out of the 16 Selected UCLA Faculty; the only 2 in UCLA Engineering)

2023          NIH UCLA CTSI KL2 Translational Science Award 

2023          NIH UCLA CTSI Core Voucher Award

2023          Chinese Association for Biomaterials Young Investigator Award 

2023          Advanced Healthcare Materials Rising Star

2023          Biosensors Best Paper Award

2023          Nano Research Young Innovator Award

2022          Distinguished Keynote Speakers of the 3rd KAIST Emerging Materials e-Symposium

2022          Thrice Highlighted in the Promotional Video “UCLA Samueli 75 Years in the Making”

2022          iCANX Young Scientist Award

2022          Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award

2022          Selected Participant for US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, National Academy of Engineering 

2022          Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials

2022          ACS PMSE Young Investigator Award 

2022          Microsystems & Nanoengineering Young Scientist Award 

2022          Advanced Materials Technologies Rising Star

2021          Advanced Materials Rising Star 

2021          Materials Today Rising Star Award 

2021          Rising Leaders: Recognizing Talent Across The Life Sciences by Informa

2021          Thought Leaders by AZo Materials

2021          UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows 

2021          Breakthroughs and Discoveries by UCLA Chancellor Gene Block

2021          Vebleo Fellow

2021          IAAM Scientist Medal  

2021          Innovating Health Outstanding Young Speaker, National University of Singapore

2021          Interstellar Initiative by the New York Academy of Sciences

2021          Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigators Award   

2021          Chemical Communications Emerging Investigators Award

2021          ACS Applied Energy Materials Early Career Energy Scientists 

2020          Okawa Foundation Research Award (7 in U.S.)   

2020          ACS Nano Rising Stars Lectureship Award

2020          Chemical Society Reviews Emerging Investigators Award 

2020          Altmetric Top 100 (Top 100 out of 3.4 million works in 2020 for Wearable Sign-to-Speech Translation)   

2020          Top 10 Science Stories of 2020 by Ontario Science Centre(for Wearable Sign-to-Speech Translation) 

2020          Nanoscale Emerging Investigators Award  

2020          Frontiers in Chemistry, Rising Stars  

2020          Microsystems & Nanoengineering Outstanding Speakers Award 

2024          Highly Cited Researchers in the Web of Science (1 out of 8 UCLA Engineering Faculty)  

2023          Highly Cited Researchers in the Web of Science (1 out of 8 UCLA Engineering Faculty)  

2022          Highly Cited Researchers in the Web of Science (1 out of 39 UCLA Faculty Members)  

2021          Highly Cited Researchers in the Web of Science (1 out of 43 UCLA Faculty Members)   

2020          Highly Cited Researchers in the Web of Science (1 out of 9 UCLA Engineering Faculty)  

2019          Highly Cited Researchers in the Web of Science (1 out of 12 UCLA Engineering Faculty)  

2024          The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (Ranked 4730 Globally Across 22 Scientific Fields)

2023          The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (Ranked 7006 Globally Across 22 Scientific Fields)

2022          The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (Ranked 9234 Globally Across 22 Scientific Fields)

2021          The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (Ranked 14638 Globally Across 22 Scientific Fields)

2020          The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (Ranked 20514 Globally Across 22 Scientific Fields)

2019          The World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University (Ranked 44150 Globally Across 22 Scientific Fields)      

2016          Excellent Undergraduate Mentor Award

2015          National Award for Outstanding Students Abroad  

2015          Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award                          

Journal Recognition

2019-         Associate Editor, Biosensors and Bioelectronics (Impact Factor: 12.6)

2022-         Associate Editor, Med-X (Springer)

2023-         Associate Editor, FlexMat (Wiley)

2023-         Associate Editor, VIEW Medicine (Wiley)

2023-         Associate Editor, Textiles

2024-         Associate Editor, Soft Science

2023-         Associate Editor, Materials Science for Energy Technologies (ScienceDirect)

2022-         Advisory Board Members, Matter

2022-         Advisory Board Members, Cell Reports Physical Science

2024-         Editorial Board Members​, Fundamental Research

2024-         Editorial Board Members, Materials Today

2024-         Editorial Board Members, Wearable Electronics

2023-         Editorial Board Members, Journal of Cardiovascular Aging

2023-         Editorial Board Members, Discover Electronics (Springer Nature)

2020-         Editorial Board Members, The Innovation (Cell Press)

2019-         Editorial Board Members, Nano-Micro Letters 

2022-         Editorial Board Members, Nano Trends

2022-         Editorial Board Members, Biomedical Technology

2021-         Editorial Board Members, Materials Today Energy

2021-         Editorial Board Members, Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X

2023-         Editorial Board Members, Exploration (Wiley)

2023-         Editorial Board Members, Brain & Heart 

2020-         Editorial Board Members, Textiles

2020-         Editorial Board Members, Biosensors 

2020-         Editorial Board Members, Smart Materials in Medicine

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