Zhugen Yang

Prof Zhugen Yang, NERC Fellow, MC Fellow, FHEA, MRSC

Professor, Leverhulme Research Leader & NERC Fellow, FHEA
PhD(Lyon), MSs(SYSU) & BSc(HIT)
   Profile at Cranfield
Research ID, Google Scholar (H=38, 6/2024)
Cranfield University, Cranfield, MK43 0AL, UK
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 1234 758310

Dr Zhugen Yang is currently a Professor of Biosensing and Environmental Health, leading a UKCRIC-funded Advanced sensors lab at Cranfield University. He joined Cranfield University as Lecturer in 2019 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2022 and Professor in 2023, after being a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in 2018. He has received three prestigious Fellowships/awards for different career stages, EU Marie Curie Fellow (2013-15), UKRI NERC Fellowship (2018-2021), and Leverhulme Research Leadership Award (2023-2028). His multidisciplinary team focuses on the development of low-cost, rapid and point-of-use sensors and devices for environmental science (e.g. microbial contamination in drinking water), public health (e.g. wastewater epidemiology for pathogens including SARS-CoV-2 and chemicals (e.g.,illicit drugs), and biomedical diagnostics (e.g. infectious disease and cancer).

Dr Yang was awarded a prestigious UK NERC Fellowship to start his independent academic career in 2018, leading a group on Advanced Sensors for Water-Environment-Health nexus. He was appointed as a Lecturer (UK tenure) at The University of Glasgow's School of Engineering, before relocating the group to Cranfield University in 2019. He completed a postdoc at the University of Cambridge and EU Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Bath, after he earned his PhD in Micro and Nanotechnology at the University of Lyon (Ecole Centrale, France), MSc (SYSU) and BEng (HIT) in China.

His research has been sponsored with over £5M, from UKRI (EPSRC, NERC, BBSRC), Leverhulme Trust, Royal Academy of Engineering and industry and government organisation, leading to over 60 referred articles (including PNAS, Nat Commun, ES&T, Water Res, ACS Nano, ACS Sens, Anal Chem, TrAC), several UK and international patents and a number of plenary/keynote talks at international conference, serving as Associate Editor/Guest Editor/Editorial Member for several international journals (e.g. TrAC, If 14.9). His research has been featured in Science Magazine, as well as media coverages including BBC (BBC News, Science Action), Washington Post, Yahoo, China Daily etc. The origami-paper device has been displayed at London Science Museum.

Fellowship, Awards & Honours (Selected)
2022 Research Leadership Awards (once every three years), Leverhulme Trust, UK
  2022   Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK
2021 James J Morgan ES&T Early Career Award- Honorable Mention, ACS, USA
2020 Outstanding presentation for Early Career Research at UK EBNet, UKRI
2019 Outstanding academic presentation at UK-CARE, UK
2018 UK NERC NPIF Independent Personal Fellowship, UK
2015 Most Accessed Article, Analyst, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK
2014 Multiple Travel grant from UK Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), British Council etc;
2013 EU Marie Curie Fellowship, EU FP7;
2011 Doctoral Travel grant for international conference, University of Lyon, France;

Editorship & Editorial Board
2023- Associate Editor, Heliyon, Chemical Engineering Section, Cell Press
2022- Associate Editor, Frontiers in Lab-on-a-Chip Technologies, Imaging and Detection, Frontier
  2021- Editor of Special Issue, TrAC-Trends in Analytical Chemistry (IF 14.9), Elsevier
2021- Editor of Special Issue, Chemosphere (IF 7.1), Elsevier
2021- Associate Editor, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, Biosensors and Biomolecular Section, Frontier
2021 Editor on Biosensors & wastewater, Comprehensive Analytical Science Series, Elsevier;
2021- Editorial Advisory Board, Advance in Sample Preparation, Elsevier;
2021- ECR Editorial Advisory Board, Environment Science & Ecotechnology, Elsevier
2020- Topic Advisory Panel of Biosensors (IF 5.6), MDPI;
2020- Editor of Special Issue, Water, MDPI;