The Global Energy Prize laureate in the in the Non-Conventional Energy category for the invention of triboelectric nanogenerators as a new energy technology for autonomous systems, the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence and large-scale blue energy harvesting.
Director and Chief Scientist, Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
He was born in China. Prof. Wang received his PhD in Physics from Arizona State University in 1987. Effective conversion of distributed energy available everywhere from human activities, machine vibrations to ocean waves into electric power is rather challenging. This problem is solved by Wang’s invention of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which can effectively convert random, wasted, low-frequency mechanical energy into electricity for sustainably powering sensor network and internet of things. TENG utilises a conjunction of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction effects, and it can convert any form of mechanical energy into electric power with an energy conversion efficiency >50-85%, which is considered as the most important discovery for harvesting mechanical energy ever since the first invention of electromagnetic generator (EMG) by Faraday in 1831. Wang’s research on self-powered nanosystems has inspired the worldwide effort in academia and industry for harvesting ambient energy, with vast applications in sensor networks, artificial intelligence, robotics and internet of things.
Of 100 000 scientists worldwide across all fields, Prof. Wang has been ranked #1 for a single year scientific impacts in 2019 and 2020 and #3 in entire career scientific impacts by Stanford University.