Group News
Press mentions, honors, and milestones for the Zang Research Group, from today back to 2007.
2026
July 7, 2026
Dr. Zang was named Associate Dean for Research in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering, effective July 1, 2026.
April 15, 2026
Dr. Zang was elected to the inaugural Technology Commercialization Advisory Committee at the University of Utah.
April 10, 2026
Congratulations to Jiangfan on being honored with this year's Departmental Excellent PhD Candidate Award!
April 9, 2026
Jiangfan was highlighted in "Humans of the U" for his research on PFAS treatment and other chemical sensors.
2025
October 8, 2025
Scientific American featured Dr. Zang's insights on MOF materials and environmental applications, spotlighting the team's latest breakthrough on PFAS removal using MOF sorbents.
October 8, 2025
Our dual-functional MOF for PFAS removal with real-time monitoring was highlighted in a Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) feature covering this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of MOFs.
July 30, 2025
Our research on MOF sorbents for PFAS removal was featured on KUER News (NPR Utah).
July 29, 2025
Our research on dual-functional MOFs for the removal and detection of PFOA was featured in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).
July 21, 2025
Our work on novel MOF materials with high PFAS adsorption capacity and real-time monitoring capabilities is attracting growing interest from the scientific and industrial communities, covered across multiple outlets.
June 22, 2025
Our latest review article on PEDOT:PSS, with Prof. Shuai Chen and others, was published in Progress in Polymer Science — a comprehensive 61-page review of the polymer's preparation, performance tuning, processing, and applications.
June 1, 2025
Dr. Zang was elected a Fellow of Industry Academy of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance.
2024
August 16, 2024
Our research on removal of PFAS was highlighted in the 2024 Research Report of the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering, University of Utah.
August 13, 2024
Dr. Ling Zang was elected to the American Council of the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM).
June 12, 2024
Our work on PFAS removal using MOFs with real-time monitoring is gaining growing interest within the scientific and industry community.
2023
2022
January 27, 2022
Dr. Zang was elected a 2021 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
2021
2020
December 8, 2020
Dr. Zang was elected a 2020 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
2018
November 8, 2018
Our nanofiber photo-chemiresistive sensor technology, developed by Vaporsens, moved toward non-destructive, remote detection of fentanyl — covered by KUTV, CBS2.
May 24, 2018
Our nanofiber sensor technology, developed by Vaporsens, moved toward a Wearable Fentanyl Sensor for alerting DHS and first responder personnel.
May 23, 2018
KUTV, CBS2 channel, reported our recent technology development in nanofiber sensors and application in real-time monitoring of air pollution.
May 21, 2018
Vaporsens and the Utah Department of Environmental Quality received a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to develop real time monitoring of air toxins in Utah.
2017
September 19, 2017
Vaporsens was awarded a Phase I SBIR research grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to continue developing nanofiber chemical sensors for monitoring formaldehyde in indoor environments.
June 13, 2017
Our nanofiber sensor technology and Vaporsens were selected as a finalist in the Smart Cities Connect Innovation Challenge, held in Austin, TX, June 26-27, 2017.
March 20, 2017
Vaporsens was honored as a "top 40 University Start-Up" by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer, selected from 200 candidate startup companies.
2016
December 20, 2016
Vaporsens was invited and sponsored for a Tech Demo at CES 2017 Eureka Park by NSF.
August 3, 2016
A unique method was developed to fabricate large crystal MAPbI3 perovskite film, published in Chem. Commun., with video available of the crystallization process.
April 4, 2016
Our D-A nanofiber composite sensors for alkane detection were highlighted in ChemistryViews.
March 25, 2016
"Sniffing out a dangerous vapor" — our research was covered by Utah News and published in ACS Sensors.
2015
September 16, 2015
"Interfacial Nanofiber Composites for Trace Alkane Detection" was covered by USTAR.
March 11, 2015
New Nanofiber-based Electronic Nose introduced by Vaporsens, demoed at the Pittcon Conference, Booth #227, March 9-12.
February 27, 2015
Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC) Spotlight: "Nanofibers For Trace Explosive Detection."
February 2015
Our collaborative work with Vaporsens was featured by CEP Magazine of AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers).
January 28, 2015
Our sensor research was featured in the President's Blog, Institution of Chemical Engineers.
2014
December 22, 2014
Our carbon nanotube research was among the Top 5 News Features of 2014 on AZoNano.com.
November 10, 2014
Our research team was featured by Fox13 TV and the Daily Utah Chronicle for our bomb-sniffing device work.
November 4, 2014
Our carbon nanotubes sensor research was featured in the Salt Lake Tribune, Fox13 News, KUER Radio, and by the NSF.
April 29, 2014
Vaporsens was covered in a news release, "U Spin-Out Takes Major Strides Forward With New Round of Federal Funding."
April 24 & 29, 2014
Miao and Helin both successfully defended their Ph.D. theses. Congrats to both!
2013
May 29, 2013
R&D of our new sensor technology in collaboration with Vaporsens was covered in Channel 2 (CBS/KUTV) Morning News.
Feb. 21, 2013
Vaporsens was invited to demonstrate its explosives and narcotics detection techniques at the Innovation Fair at the State Capitol, see the live coverage by Fox 13 News.
2012
Dec. 14, 2012
our sensor research and commercialization effort through Vaporsens is highlighted in a report by the Salt Lake Tribune, "University of Utah is a startup machine, according to survey"
July 24, 2012
KSL (Channel 5) TV covers our recent research success in narcotic sensors and the commercialization collaboration with Vaporsens Inc. click for the news clip.
July 6, 2012
Congrats to Yanke for election into the 3rd round of "Youth 1000-Talent Plan" of China (青年千人计划), a government endowed professorship.
April 27, 2012
Ben Bunes is awarded with the prestigious NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF). It is extremely competitive to get this award. Congratulations, Ben.
April 19, 2012
our lab is featured in the 2012 issue of "Business in Utah", the Official Publication of the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
March 15, 2012
Congratulations to Ben, Miao and Helin, representing University of Utah, their project “Vapor Detection of Peroxide-Based Improvised Explosive Devices” won the ten finalists for the Sixth Annual National Security Innovation Competition --- The National Homeland Defense Foundation (NHDF) today.
Feb. 16, 2012
one of our explosives detector devices was part of the USTAR Science Fair showcase at the State Capitol Rotunda where our Ph.D. students Ben, Miao and Helin demonstrated how the device works (2nd and 3rd photos).
2011
December, 2011
our explosives sensor research and technology development were featured in the November/December issue of Zions Bank Community magazine: "No Mean Feet - Nano Net Detects Explosives."
November, 2011
our heavy metal sensor research was covered in the Fall 2011 issue of UofU Innovations Newsletter.
November 16, 2011
Zang gave an invited feature talk at Salt Lake Community College on the topic of "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy through Nanotechnology". see the follow up report by the Globe.
October 8, 2011
Bringing mercury pollution to light: U. scientist creates faster, cheaper way to measure mercury.
August 31, 2011
Dr. Zang commented on "Nanotechnology emerges in energy efficiency" with Leonardo Energy.
July 13, 2011
Governor Herbert declared July 13, 14 and 15 as the Utah-Qinghai EcoPartnership days during the National Governors Association Meeting held in SLC. Metallosensors is part of the EcoPartnership, and mentioned in the declaration. Click here for the PDF of Declaration.
June 8, 2011
MetalloSensors was awarded a SBIR grant for developing next generation of device for Trace Mercury Detection.
June 3, 2011
Utah Pulse: Nanotechnology and the New Energy Economy, reporting Dr. Zang's new book with Springer and his interview on renewable energy and the impact brought by nanotechnology; also covered in the USTAR network.
May 16, 2011
Welcome Dr. Ligui Li joining us as a postdoctoral fellow.
April 11-15, 2011
Dr. Ling Zang delivered an invited talk at the 2011 Workshop on Trace Explosives Detection.
March 28, 2011
Congratulations to Ben, Miao and Helin! Their project titled "Low-Cost, Portable Detection of Peroxide-Based Improvised Explosive Devices" has been selected as one of the ten finalist for the Fifth Annual National Security Competition at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado on April 29, 2011.
March 18, 2011
The Utah Entrepreneur Challenge announced the top 10 teams for its 2011 competition today. VaporoSens team led by Lassonde Students is among the final 10. UEC announces top-10 teams.
Feb. 1, 2011
our research and development work on sensors is highlighted by the Zions Bank "Speaking on Business" program through KSL News Radio. - the Zions Bank "Speaking on Business" is a radio program highlighting businesses throughout Utah and Idaho. The week of Jan. 31st, the spotlighted companies and breakthrough research associated with USTAR. The host of the program is Chris Redgrave, former general manager of KSL NewsRadio in Salt Lake City, and past chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors.
Jan. 26, 2011
Utah Center of Trace Explosives Detection (UCTED) is established, with sponsorship of the State's Centers of Excellence program.
Jan. 24, 2011
Chengyi's paper "Fluorescent nanoscale zinc(ii)-carboxylate coordination polymers for explosive sensing" was amongst the top ten accessed articles of ChemComm in the month December 2010 after published online. You can browse the full list of top 10 articles here.
2010
September 14, 2010
Dr. Zang was appointed as an Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholar (EFS) of the University of Utah.
September 2, 2010
Zengxing's work on Reversible Dispersion and Release of Carbon Nanotubes Using Foldamers is now accepted for publication in Journal of the American Chemical Society.
July, 2010
a new way of making graphene — a single layer of carbon atoms — for potential use in high-speed electronic devices.
May 15, 2010
Ben, Helin, and Miao presented "the Magic of Color" and demonstrated hands-on excitments at NanoDays 2010, Utah. NanoDays is a nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering. This year, NanoDays Utah was hosted by the Nano Institute of Utah at the University of Utah, in partnership with The Leonardo, Utah Science Center, and the Utah Museum of Natural History. More details can be found here.
2009
Dec., 2009
our research in nanomaterials and applications in trace explosives detection and clean energy were featured in the 2009 Research Report, College of Engineering.
August 31, 2009
our patented technology on nanofibril explosives sensory materials is now licensed to ICx Technologies, a leading manufacturer of explosives detectors, as featured in a News Paper, the Southern Illinoisan.
April 17, 2009
Earth Day in Utah: our research in sensors and solar cells leads to part of the prospective of creating cleaner environment.
Feb. 18, 2009
Detecting Danger at the Nanoscale: Technology to Improve Security, Environment.
2008
Dec. 10, 2008
Dr. Zang attended a USTAR luncheon with Governor Huntsman.
Aug 2008
Our lab moved from the Southern Illinois University to University of Utah, as part of the USTAR program.
Feb 2008
Yanke's paper on mercury sensing published in ChemComm is featured as a "Hot Article" by the journal.
2007
2007
Nanofiber research highlighted in Materials Today, July Issue, 2007.
2007
Yanke's ultralong nanobelts are highlighted in ACS weekly News, June 6, 2007, also in a Chemistry Web.
June 7, 2007
Nanotechnology research at NESMI lab is featured in a News Paper, Southeast Missouri.
May 31, 2007
Expedient Explosives Detection via Nanofibril Sensor Films now featured on TV, the Heartland News, KFVS12 (CBS). ( click for the scripture ).
May 29, 2007
Explosives Sensing research featured in a News Paper, the Southern Illinoisan.
2007
Tam's JACS paper on Explosives Sensing is highlighted in Nature Nanotechnology, May 25, 2007.
2007
Explosives Sensing research featured in ACS weekly News, May 23, 2007, also in Science Daily, in SoftPedia, and in PhysOrg.