Jian-Ping Wang

Jian-Ping Wang is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and holds the Robert F. Hartmann Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He is also a member of the graduate faculty in Physics. Wang received his B.S. in Physics from Lanzhou University in 1989, M.S. in Physics from Lanzhou University in 1992, and Ph.D. in Physics from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National University of Singapore in 1996. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota in 2002, where he was promoted to full professor in 2009, he served as the founding program manager of the Magnetic Media and Materials program at the Data Storage Institute in Singapore from 1998 to 2002. He directs the Nano Magnetism and Quantum Spintronics Lab, the Center for Spintronic Materials, Novel Interfaces and Architectures (C-SPIN), and the Center for Spintronic Materials for Advanced InfoRmation Technologies (SMART Center).

Wang's research specializes in nanomagnetism and quantum spintronics, focusing on novel magnetic materials and devices with high magnetic anisotropy, giant saturation magnetization, high spin polarization ratio, and large spin-orbit torque for information storage, computing, biomedical sensing, neuron stimulation, and green energy technologies. His pioneering contributions include exchange coupled composite perpendicular media, perpendicular spintronic devices, and magnetic tunnel junction-based memory, logic, and computation devices. He has authored and co-authored more than 210 peer-reviewed publications and holds 17 patents. Key publications include “Exchange Coupled Composite Media for Perpendicular Recording” in IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (2005), “Room-temperature high spin–orbit torque due to quantum confinement in sputtered BixSe(1–x) films” in Nature Materials (2018), “Environment-friendly bulk Fe16N2 permanent magnet: Review and prospective” in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (2020), and “Experimental demonstration of magnetic tunnel junction-based computational random-access memory” in npj Unconventional Computing (2024). Wang has received major awards such as the 2025 Faculty Innovator of the Year at the University of Minnesota, 2024 IEEE Magnetics Society Achievement Award, 2021 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, 2020 American Physical Society Fellow, 2019 Semiconductor Research Corporation Technical Excellence Award and Entrepreneurial Researcher Innovator Award, 2015 IEEE Fellow, and 2012 Distinguished McKnight University Professorship. His innovations have led to advancements like rare-earth-free magnets commercialized by Niron Magnetics.

Professional Email: jianping@umn.edu