Organic chemist Song Lin of Stanford University and chemical and nanoengineer Liangfang Zhang of the University of California San Diego are among the 20 people who have received 2026 MacArthur Fellowships. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation website states that these $800,000 “no-strings-attached” awards, often called genius grants, are given to “extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.” Fellows represent a wide range of professional disciplines in the arts, sciences, and humanities.
Lin’s research focuses on radical reaction mechanisms and using electricity-based processes to construct complex molecules. Electrochemistry has gained popularity over the last decade for its potential to enable safer, greener, and more selective synthesis. Lin’s work has been at the forefront of that movement.
Lin says the grant “means a tremendous deal” for him and his entire laboratory group. “It really allows us to continue to pursue the type of fundamental research we do to understand how chemistry works, how molecules work, and how the world works,” which is “not always immediately appreciated by the public and by the funding agencies these days,” he says.
For the past couple of years, Lin and his team have been exploring microelectronic devices for high-throughput chemistry. He says the award and his move earlier this year to Stanford, with its proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area, will help advance this tech-focused new direction. “The idea is really to try and bring instruments into reactors and into well plates.”
Zhang and his team invented a platform for cloaking synthetic nanoparticles using membranes from human red blood cells. The technology has myriad applications, including delivering precision drugs, removing toxins from the bloodstream, and acting as vaccines for infectious diseases.
2026 MacArthur Fellow Liangfang Zhang engineers nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Credit:
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Because so many diseases attack red blood cells, for which the nanoparticles can essentially act as decoys, “we can achieve one medicine that can be used to treat a very broad spectrum” of chemical and biological threats, Zhang says. “It is a really new modality.” He cofounded a start-up that has received two investigational new drug approvals from the US Food and Drug Administration to advance the nanomedicines toward the clinic.
Zhang says the award “came as a complete surprise” and adds that it is “a wonderful recognition of the cellular nanotechnology that we have developed over the years . . . [and] a great encouragement to my research team and myself.” He doesn’t yet have a specific plan for the grant money, but two future directions he’s excited about are continuing to advance his cellular nanomedicines toward clinical testing and exploring potential uses of artificial intelligence in nanomedicine.
