Professor Joseph Wang, University of California, San Diego, USA, has been awarded the Spiers Memorial Award for 2013 by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), UK. The Spiers Memorial Award is presented annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to one of the rapidly developing areas of physical chemistry that has been a focus of a Faraday Discussion meeting.

Wang was awarded for his work in the fields of electroanalytical chemistry and nanobiotechnology. He received the prize on July 1, 2013, at the Electroanalysis at the Nanoscale Faraday Discussion held in Durham, UK, where Professor Wang delivered the prize lecture, entitled Nanoscale Propulsion of Electrochemically Fabricated Devices.

Joseph Wang studied chemistry at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, gaining his B.Sc., M.Sc., and D.Sc. from there before joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, as a research associate in 1978. In 1980, he moved to New Mexico State University, USA, where he became full professor in 1988. From 2004–2008, Wang was Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Arizona State University (ASU), USA, as well as Director of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at the ASU Biodesign Institute of the same university. In 2008, he moved to the University of California, San Diego, where he is currently Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair of Nanongineering.

He is the Founding Editor and Chief-in-Editor of the journal Electroanalysis and has been a member of the Advisory Editorial Boards of many analytical journals.

Wang’s research focuses on the field of nanobioelectronics in which nanomaterials are applied to the analysis of biomolecules. Much of his work is directed toward electrochemical sensing devices for clinical point-of-care testing. He is also interested in synthetic nanomotors and nanomachines for practical biomedical and environmental applications.

• Organized Self-Assembly of Janus Micromotors with Superhydrophobic Hemispheres,
  W. Gao, A. Pei, X. Feng, C. Hennessy, J. Wang,
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 998–1001.
  DOI: 10.1021/ja311455k
• Multi-Fuel Driven Janus Micromotors,
  W. Gao, M. D’Agostino, V. Garcia-Gradilla, J. Orozco, J. Wang,
  Small 2013, 9, 467–471.
  DOI: 10.1002/smll.201201864
• Acoustic Droplet Vaporization and Propulsion of Perfluorocarbon-Loaded Microbullets for Targeted Tissue Penetration and Deformation,
  D. Kagan, M. J. Benchimol, J. C. Claussen, E. Chuluun-Erdene, S. Esener, J. Wang,
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 7519–7522.
  DOI: 10.1002/anie.201201902
• Catalytically propelled micro-/nanomotors: how fast can they move?
  Wei Gao, Sirilak Sattayasamitsathit, Joseph Wang,
  Chem. Rec. 2012, 12, 224–231.
  DOI: 10.1002/tcr.201100031
• 

  Analytical Electrochemistry,
  Joseph Wang,
  Wiley-VCH, Hoboken, USA, 2006.
  ISBN: 978-0-471-67879-3
  DOI: 10.1002/0471790303

• Carbon-Nanotube Based Electrochemical Biosensors: A Review,
  Joseph Wang,
  Electroanalysis 2005, 17, 7–14.
  DOI: 10.1002/elan.200403113