Prof. Zhenan Bao is K.K. Lee Professor of Chemical Engineering, and by courtesy, a Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Bao founded the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiate (eWEAR) in 2016 and serves as the faculty director.

Prior to joining Stanford in 2004, she was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies from 1995-2004. She received her Ph.D in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1995. She has over 700 refereed publications and over 100 US patents with a Google Scholar H-Index >190. She is one of the Clarivate Citation Laureates.

Bao is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. She a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Science. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and is a member of its scientific affair committee. She is an advisor for the Science for America, a solutions incubator to address urgent challenges, driven by an unprecedented alliance of leading philanthropic organizations.

Bao was the inaugural recipient of the VinFuture Prize Female Innovator 2022, the ACS Chemistry of Materials Award 2022, MRS Mid-Career Award in 2021, AICHE Alpha Chi Sigma Award 2021, ACS Central Science Disruptor and Innovator Prize in 2020, Gibbs Medal by the Chicago session of ACS in 2020, Wilhelm Exner Medal by Austrian Federal Minister of Science 2018, ACS Award on Applied Polymer Science 2017, L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award in the Physical Sciences 2017

Bao is a co-founder and on the Board of Directors for C3 Nano and PyrAmes, both are silicon- valley venture funded start-ups. She serves as an advising Partner for Fusion Venture Capital.