Every very year, the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering selects and recognizes outstanding achievements by a number of its alumni, faculty members and students who have excelled in various fields. Below is the profile of Jun Chen, Ph.D., the recipient of the V.M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award.
V.M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award
Jun Chen
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
A prominent researcher in the field of wearable bioelectronics, bioengineering assistant professor Jun Chen has already amassed more than 250 peer-reviewed journal publications, including 32 cover features.
Chen leads the Wearable Bioelectronics Research Group at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, focusing on nanotechnology and bioelectronics for energy, sensing and therapeutic applications in the form of smart textiles, wearables and body-area networks.
Among his many breakthrough technology advancements is a wearable glove that can translate American Sign Language into speech. More recently, Chen discovered the magnetoelastic effect in soft matter systems and unveiled a new class of human body-powered soft bioelectronics.
Chen has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Web of Science four years in a row. Selection to the global list is reserved for authors whose published studies rank in the top 1% in the number of scholarly citations.
In addition to his research, Chen developed three undergraduate and graduate courses he teaches on wearable bioelectronics, nanogenerators and bioelectronic devices design.
For his many contributions to the field, Chen has received many accolades including a Young Investigator Grant from the national nonprofit Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, a Young Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering, the Materials Today Rising Star Award and the Advanced Materials Rising Star Award. He has been named a UCLA Hellman Fellow and a fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials
Beyond research, Chen is an associate editor of Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Med-X and Textiles. He also serves on the advisory or editorial board of Matter, Cell Reports Physical Science, Nano-Micro Letters, Materials Today Energy, Nano Trends and The Innovation.
Chen joined the UCLA Samueli faculty in 2019, following a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. He received a master’s in biological engineering from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Georgia Tech.