1. Brief Introduction 

Dr. EH Yang is a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stevens Institute of Technology. The first to receive a MEMS Ph.D. in his native South Korea, he joined Stevens in 2006 following tenure as a senior member of the engineering staff at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he was awarded, among other honors, the Lew Allen Award for Excellence for developing MEMS-based actuators and microvalves for large-aperture space telescopes and deformable mirrors capable of correcting for optical aberrations to improve high-resolution imaging. Dr. Yang facilitates student research and hands-on education in emerging nanotechnologies through the Stevens Micro Device Laboratory. In addition to his role as a faculty advisor of the nanotechnology graduate program, he spearheaded the design of Stevens' first undergraduate nanotechnology research-track training program. Dr. Yang has secured funding from the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Reconnaissance Office, the US Army, and NASA. Dr. Yang's professional service credits include editorial or editorial board positions for several journals, including Nature’s Scientific Reports.

2. Honors and Recognition

Dr. Yang has been nationally and internationally recognized for his research excellence. He was honored to give Track Plenary lectures at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Pittsburg, PA, in November 2018. Among other honors, he was awarded the Lew Allen Award for Excellence at JPL in 2003, the Award for Research Excellence at Stevens in 2019 and the IEEE Technical Achievement Award (Advanced Career) from the IEEE Sensors Council in 2020. He is an IEEE Sensors Council Distinguished Lecturer (2023-2025) and IEEE Nanotechnology Council (NTC) Chapter Chair (North Jersey Section). He received a Master of Engineering, Honoris Causa, from Stevens Institute of Technology in 2023. Dr. Yang is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

3. Notable Contributions

His commitment to mentoring, sharing knowledge and contributing to the scientific community is demonstrated in journal titles he has reviewed throughout his career, including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, JACS, Materials Today, ACS Nano, and Chemistry of Materials. At NASA, Dr. Yang managed and monitored several NASA SBIR projects and participated in the review committee for developing NASA's Multi-Object Spectrometer for the James Webb Space Telescope, in addition to managing or executing several research contracts funded by NASA, DARPA, and NRO.

Dr. Yang exudes a spirit of innovation, which he shares through his various leadership roles in professional societies; he has served several professional activities for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), Materials Research Society (MRS), Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), American Vacuum Society (AVS), New York Academy of Sciences, and American Physical Society (APS). His service to the professional community includes formal appointments such as Associate Editor of ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, Editorial Board Member of Nature's Scientific Reports, and Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal. In particular, Dr. Yang has been a significant contributor to the ASME MEMS Division and ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE); as Track Chair of the IMECE Nano and Micro Systems Track, he organized and ran several symposia consisting of approximately 50 sessions and over 250 presentations related to advances in Nano and Micro Systems, each year from 2009 to 2011. He was Division Chair (2012-2013), Division Vice-Chair (2011-2012), Member of the Executive Committee (2009-2014), Committee Chair, Program and Editorial Committee (2009-2011), Track Chair of IMECE Micro and Nano Systems Track (2009-2011), Track Co-Chair of IMECE Micro and Nano Systems Track (2012), Track Co-Chair of IMECE Nanoengineering for Biology and Medicine Track (2011), Organizer and Committee Member of the ASME Society-Wide Micro/Nano Technology Forum (2008-2012), Committee Member of IMECE’s Micro and Nano Devices Symposium, and Miniaturization for Space (2005-2010).

4. Research Areas

4.1.Syntheses, Analyses and Applications of 2D Materials and Their Heterostructures

There has been a growing interest in two-dimensional (2D) crystals beyond graphene, facilitating novel electronic and optoelectronic devices. Doping different atoms into transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) creates 2D dilute magnetic semiconductors, promising for spintronics applications. Our work synthesizes 2D dilute magnetic semiconductors via an in situ substitutional doping of metal atoms into the transition metal lattice sites in TMD monolayers and probes ferromagnetism at room temperature. These van der Waals ferromagnets find critical applications, including on-chip magnetic manipulation of quantum states or spintronics. Other related projects include modeling to prevent the anomalies encountered in topographic images of TMD monolayers in dynamic atomic force microscopy and elucidating the effect of TMD surfaces and their geometric arrangements on cellular morphology and adhesion. Suppose our growth and nanofabrication strategy could be developed to be highly reliable and high fidelity, in this case, it could have an enormous impact on the future research and commercialization of TMD-based devices.

4.2. Flexible Electrodes and Tunable Wetting

Skin-attachable electronic devices can be subjected to various lateral strains via stretching, bending, and distortion, while the devices must provide reliable outputs under pressure orthogonally applied to the surface. We partially embed vertically aligned carbon nanotubes in polydimethylsiloxane, which are stable under stretching and bending (flexibility) for long-cyclic testing. The devices (e.g., pressure sensors) made using this process can be sensitive or insensitive to these lateral strains induced by mechanical deformation (such as stretching, bending, twisting, and wrinkling). We also utilize dodecylbenzenesulfonate-doped polypyrrole (PPy(DBS)) to provide additional functionalities to flexible sensors and energy-storage devices. Stretchable electrodes will have applications in wearable electronics, flexible photovoltaics (e.g., rolled-up displays), self-powered wearable optoelectronics, and electronic skins.