Jackie Y. Ying

Early life and education Ying was born in Taipei on April 30, 1966. She moved to Singapore with her family in 1973 as a child where she was a student at Rulang Primary School and Raffles Girls' School. She then went to New York City, earning a B.Eng. degree, summa cum laude, from Cooper Union in 1987. She then attended Princeton University, receiving her M.A. in 1988 and her Ph.D. in 1991, both in chemical engineering. She spent a year as a Humboldt Fellow at the Institute for New Materials in Saarbrücken and researched nanocrystalline materials with Herbert Gleiter.

Career Ying became a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1992. She was made a full professor in 2001; at 35 she was one of MIT's youngest full professors.

In March 2018, Ying stepped down from her position as Executive Director at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology to lead her own lab, NanoBio lab.

In 2021, Ying was elected as a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering.

Honours and awards During 2008, Ying was chosen by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers as an Engineer of the Modern Era.

In December 2015, it was announced that she was one of the recipients of the inaugural 2015 Mustafa Prize awarded by the Mustafa Science and Technology Foundation. She was awarded the "Top Scientific Achievement" award for "her great scientific and technological contributions and achievements to the synthesis of well-designed advanced nanostructured materials and systems, nanostructured biomaterials and miniaturised biosystems for various interesting applications". In 2016, she was elected to the Cooper Union Hall of Fame for her achievements.

When the National Academy of Inventors gave Ying a fellowship in 2017, she was the first Singapore-based scientist to receive this honour. In 2021, she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. She has served as the Editor in Chief of Nano Today, and is currently advising the journal as Editor Emeritus. In 2023, she was awarded the King Faisal Prize.

She is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Personal life Ying is a practicing Muslim, having converted to the faith when she was 35, the year when her daughter was born.