Assistant Professor Yang Zhang is the newest Wilson College of Textiles faculty member to win a Goodnight Early Career Innovator Award.
The NC State Provost’s Office announced the class of 2025-26 on Dec. 10. Instituted in 2021, the award was created to encourage the university’s most promising young faculty to continue their careers with NC State. Tenure-track assistant professors studying STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or STEM education are eligible to be nominated. Zhang is one of 25 such faculty members named to the most recent class.
Zhang joined the faculty of Wilson College’s Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science (TECS) in the fall of 2022. Prior to that, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Miami.
Over the course of his career, he’s built a track record of research, teaching and mentorship that has set him apart.
“In short, Dr. Zhang is exactly the type of scholar the Goodnight Early Career Innovator Award was created to honor: a brilliant, creative and impactful researcher whose work crosses disciplinary boundaries, attracts major funding, inspires students and garners national recognition,” TECS Department Head Emiel DenHartog wrote in his letter of recommendation.
Pioneering impactful research
Zhang’s Molecular Analytics and Photonics (MAP) Lab focuses on single-molecule super-resolution imaging and fluorescent dyes, with potential or existing applications in medicine, sustainability and materials science.
“His work stands out not only for its technical sophistication but also for its creative design principles, bridging molecular photophysics with pressing biomedical applications,” DenHartog wrote.
Applications of artificial intelligence (AI) also play a role in his research. Specifically, Zhang is investigating how this technology can advance scientific imaging and analysis.
The more than $5 million he has garnered in external research funding has translated to almost 60 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has also won both an NSF CAREER Award and an NIH MIRA Award for Early-Stage Investigators in the same academic year, something both DenHartog and Wilson College Dean David Hinks believe places him in rare company.
Preparing the next generation
These accomplishments in the lab, however, are not to the detriment of his work in the classroom, where his research findings are incorporated into undergraduate and graduate coursework. Through his participation in the TECS Research Experience for Undergraduates program and other efforts, Zhang has mentored 12 graduate, 12 undergraduate and six high school students.
Last fall, he expanded his teaching responsibilities to include courses in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, shared by NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The joint appointment between NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is serves as another indication of the interdisciplinary nature of his work.
“His research group consistently helps us to attract top graduate talent and his mentorship of students — both through serving on graduate committees and through providing work experience for a variety of levels in his research lab — goes above and beyond that of many early-career faculty,” Dean David Hinks wrote in his letter of recommendation.
“In addition to all of these achievements, Dr. Zhang is a humble, kind, highly collaborative and engaged faculty member who is well-regarded in his department and by his students,” he added.
Moving forward
As a recipient of the Goodnight Early Career Innovators Award, Zhang will be awarded $22,000 each of the next three years to put towards his research and scholarship.
This summer, he will move the MAP Lab to Woodson Hall, where he will participate in the Integrated Sciences Initiative. The program brings together 20 molecular sciences labs from across the university to collaborate and solve big picture challenges.
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