Dr. Ya Wang, an associate professor and holder of the Leland T. Jordan Career Development Professorship in the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, is the invited speaker for the 2021-2022 Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Texas A&M Science Outreach and Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) .
Wang, who is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will present a hybrid lecture, “Magneto-plasmonic Nanoparticles for Brain Therapeutics,” at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday, January 26, in Room 440 of the Zachry Engineering Education Complex. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is presented in conjunction with the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering Spring 2022 Seminar Series.
Wang joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2018 following a five-year stint as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stony Brook University. She earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech in 2012 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan prior to beginning her independent academic career at Stony Brook.
Wang’s current research, which focuses on engineered nanomedicine, sensors, dynamics and controls, seeks to bridge the gap between science, engineering and applications in health technologies. Her work is funded by a host of federal and industrial sources, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research. She has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal papers, 30 conference proceedings and one book chapter to date, earning an NSF Growing Convergence Research Award (2020), an NSF CAREER Award (2018), the DOE Wave Energy Prize (2015) and a Special Congressional Recognition (2015). She also holds three U.S. utility patents.
In addition to being a senior member of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), Wang is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She also serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures (2019-present) and Frontiers Materials (2020-present).
At the conclusion of Wang’s presentation, Texas A&M graduate students Purboja Purkayastha ’22 (Department of Chemical Engineering) and Seongmi Song ’25 (Department of Health and Kinesiology) will be recognized as the 2021-2022 recipients of the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Awards for Research, while fellow graduate student Morgan Thompson ’21 (Department of Entomology) will be honored with the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Award for Mentoring. Each will receive a $500 check, a memorial plaque and a certificate of recognition.
The awards are presented by WISE to highlight research and mentoring efforts by women on the Texas A&M campus in honor and remembrance of Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui, a longtime faculty member in the Texas A&M Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Tsutsui was a founding member of WISE and cared deeply about the retention and recognition of women in the university’s graduate programs. Both the awards and the event are sponsored by WISE, the College of Science, the Texas A&M Division of Research, the Texas A&M Graduate and Professional School and the College of Engineering.
Women In Science and Engineering at Texas A&M is an organization of graduate students, staff and faculty from various science and engineering backgrounds. The group was created to address specific problems faced by women in nontraditional fields.
For more information about the lecture or other outreach events and women’s programs in the College of Science, please contact Texas A&M Science Outreach at (979) 845-7363 or outreach@science.tamu.edu.