Research interests: nanomaterials and devices for biology and medicine; bio-molecule assisted nanomaterial self-assembly
Biography
Professor Shirley Tang’s bionano lab at University of Waterloo is dedicated to the development of Carbon Nanotube (CNT) based biomaterials and bioelectronics. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art instruments tailored for CNT synthesis and characterization and a biosafety II cell culture lab dedicated to the investigation of CNT-biosystem interactions.
Prior to joining Waterloo, she pursued postdoctoral work (2003-2005) in Professor H. Dai’s laboratory at Stanford University. Utilizing the unique physical properties of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (SWNT), she developed advanced sensory devices including SWNT-Field Effect Transister (FET) biosensor array and ultra-sensitive miniature X-ray detectors. During 2000-2003, she worked at private companies in Silicon Valley, California, U.S.A. She received her PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1999 under the supervision of Professor D.G. Cory. The novel Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methodology and instruments she developed for single cell and small organism imaging brought significant advancement to the field of NMR microscopy. Tang joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo in February 2006.
Tang’s most significant contributions to nanobiomaterial and nanobioelectronics research are exemplified by publications on prestigious journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Biotechnology, Journal of American Chemical Society, and Nano Letters.
Education
- Post-Doctoral Fellow, Standford University, 2003-2005
- PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999
- BSc, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 1993
