Prof. Weijian Yang Receives the Prestigious NSF Early CAREER Award
Posted by Adil Abbuthalha
Weijian Yang, an assistant professor of the electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Davis, is the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award – the Early CAREER Award -- for his research on “Agile multiplexed multiphoton microscope for interrogation of neural circuits.”
A little bit about Professor Yang: He received his B.S. degree from Peking University, China in 2008, and his Ph.D. degree from University of California, Berkeley, in 2013, all in Electrical Engineering. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University from 2014 to 2017. His research combines electrical and computer engineering, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience.
Professor Yang’s research focuses on brain imaging and brain modulation, biophotonics and opto-electronics, as well as neural circuits. In this Early CAREER Award, he aims to develop a non-invasive tool that can be used for interrogating neural circuits across wide brain regions in multiple depths. The proposed instrument will provide capabilities for high-resolution imaging and light stimulation of neural activity in deeper regions of the brain. This project also responds to the national call for building a workforce excelling in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Professor Yang will engage the high school students, particularly the underrepresented groups, in STEM education; he will also engage undergraduate and graduate students in the interdisciplinary research and coursework. This research has enormous potential with discoveries that can reshape not just the engineering fields but medical fields as well.
Each year, the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program awards these grants to scientists and engineers who will be future role models in research and education. Please join us in congratulating and celebrating the achievements of Professor Yang. This award brings the number of current ECE faculty winners to 17.
To learn more about the award please visit NSF.