Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) research scientist Xiao Wang has been named a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
"Senior membership, the IEEE’s highest grade, recognizes veteran scientists, engineers and others with at least 10 years of professional experience who have shown significant performance over at least five years and have been nominated by other IEEE fellows and senior members," ORNL states in its April 12 news release announcing the appointment. "The IEEE reserves that status for fewer than 10 percent of its more than 400,000 members worldwide."
As "the world's largest organization for technical professionals," IEEE's recognition signifies Wang’s impressive contributions to electrical and electronics engineering, according to ORNL. Wang researches the use of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods to solve imaging problems.
“I’m using math, computer science and HPC at the same time to help advance medicine,” Wang said in the news release. "“I always knew I wanted to combine my studies of math and computer science in my research, and imaging is the right kind of work for me to integrate them."
Wang earned his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering in 2017 from Purdue University. After postdoc training at Harvard Medical School, he joined ORNL in 2021, where he currently conducts HPC research in the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate’s Advanced Computing for Health Sciences Section, according to the news release.
The research scientist said he "fell in love with the subject almost immediately" and still enjoys research so much "I don’t even need coffee to get me going in the morning," according to the news release. Oak Ridge's resources, including the Computing Facility, the Spallation Neutron Source and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, makes the lab "a dream place to do this kind of work,” Wang said in the news release.
He advises young scientists to choose a research problem that excites and enthuses them, according to the release. The work requires time and commitment so you might as well enjoy it, he said.
“I never feel like I’m inventing anything," Wang said in the news release. "I’m just exploring the natural laws that have always been out there in the universe and learning new ways to use them for our benefit."
