Student Spotlight: Sally Wang

Sally Wang was born to be a Terp. Both of her parents met at and completed their doctorate degrees on UMD’s campus, her dad in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and her mom in Chemistry. After settling in College Park and welcoming Wang into their family, they decided to move to Taichung, Taiwan.

Inspired by her family’s history in College Park, Wang knew she wanted to receive her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. After applying to and being accepted into the bioengineering Ph.D. program, Wang sought out Fischell Institute Director and BIOE professor Bill Bentley as her advisor, once again following her parents' path.

Wang’s father studied under Bentley as his second student to graduate with a Ph.D. Now, a number of years later, Wang has made a name for herself as Bentley’s forty-ninth student to complete their doctorate under his guidance. After successfully defending her dissertation, she graduated on May 22, 2023.

Wang's research involves creating synthetic biology and molecular biology tools to endow microbes with new functions. For her dissertation, she focused on employing redox, the biological modality for electron transfer, to connect biology and electronics and build a complete network of Bio-Nano Things.

"Molecular biology is interesting to me because it's the one field that is very "pure" and logical in the otherwise chaotic world of biology," Wang explained. "Bioengineering excites me because you get to study natural biological phenomena but design and control those processes as well."

Following graduation, Wang hopes to find a postdoctoral research position in labs focusing on synbio in mammalian or non-traditional microbial chassis. She hopes to one day become a Principal Investigator, lead a lab and mentor students. That, or open an ice cream shop. Whichever works out first.

Published May 24, 2023