Zhenan Bao

Stanford University

Zhenan Bao is the K. K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, with courtesy appointments in Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Bioengineering, and served as chair of Chemical Engineering from 2018 to 2022. She is a world leader in organic and flexible electronics, best known for inventing skin-inspired stretchable electronic materials — ‘electronic skin’ — that sense pressure, temperature, and strain while remaining biodegradable and self-healing. Before academia she spent eight years at Bell Labs as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, where she advanced organic field-effect transistors and organic semiconductors. Bao has authored over 770 refereed publications and holds more than 80 US patents, and was named one of Nature’s Ten as a ‘Master of Materials’ for her electronic-skin work. She has commercialized her research extensively, co-founding and serving on the boards of C3 Nano (transparent conductive materials) and PyrAmes Health (continuous wearable blood-pressure monitoring), and advising venture-funded startups as a partner at Fusion Venture Capital — a strong signal of industry engagement for partners selling into her lab.