Martha Wang Honored with Provost’s Excellence in Service Award

Martha Wang, assistant director at the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and Fischell Institute and MPower Entrepreneurship Fellowship faculty mentor, was selected as a recipient of the Provost’s 2026 Excellence in Service Award for Professional Track (PTK) Faculty.

The Office of the Provost recognizes University of Maryland PTK faculty each year for outstanding achievement in research, teaching, and service. The service award honors faculty who have made exceptional contributions to their department, college, university, or the broader community.

Since 2019, Wang has helped the Fischell Institute deploy nine medical devices and mentored 16 MPower Fellows.

In doing so, she has fostered a community of students and researchers interested in advancing the public good through the development of innovative biomedical devices. Her background in industry offers a unique perspective for guiding medical device innovations through ideation, prototyping, customer discovery, regulatory hurdles, and the commercialization pipeline.

Outside of the Fischell Institute, Wang teaches a graduate-level course on biomaterials and medical device development in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering, preparing the next generation of bioengineers to advance MedTech innovation. She also helped develop the framework for xFoundry’s Xperiment to Address Grand Challenges course, which is now used as the blueprint for all xFoundry@UMD classes, supporting student innovation and entrepreneurship broadly across the xFoundry Alliance.

Wang is the organizing chair of Maryland MedTech Week, an annual week of events that brings together the DMV’s MedTech community. Co-founded with the Maryland Department of Commerce and supported by key partners, the seven-day affair has grown from 170 participants in its inaugural year to more than 850 in 2026. In recognition of its impact, the week’s cornerstone event, the Maryland MedTech Summit, earned a proclamation from Maryland Governor Wes Moore declaring March 24, 2026 as Maryland MedTech Day.

“I’m passionate about the power of community, and the role it plays in innovation, particularly in the medtech ecosystem,” said Wang. "Receiving recognition for my part in bringing all these pieces together is an honor.”

Published June 12, 2026