Lai-Sheng Wang received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Wuhan University and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. Lai-Sheng did postdoctoral work at Rice University before he took a joint position in 1993 between the Department of Physics at Washington State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He moved to Brown University in 2009 and is currently the Jesse H. and Louisa D. Sharpe Metcalf Professor of Chemistry. Since July 2019, he has been serving as the Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Brown University.

Research Interests: Lai-Sheng’s research involves experimental studies of size-selected nanoclusters using photoelectron spectroscopy and imaging. Research in his lab has led to the discoveries of golden cages and golden pyramids, planar and aromatic boron clusters, borophenes, and borospherenes. Lai-Sheng’s group has also pioneered the application of electrospray ionization for spectroscopic studies of solution anions in the gas phase, in particular, multiply-charged anions and microsolvated anions. His lab has developed cryogenically-cooled 3D quadrupole ion-trap techniques to create cold anions from electrospray ionization for spectroscopic investigations using photoelectron spectroscopy and high-resolution photoelectron imaging. Current research projects in the Wang lab include the investigation of the structures and bonding of size-selected boron and boride clusters, probing noncovalent excited states of cold anions using photodetachment and photoelectron spectroscopy, the investigations of astronomically relevant anions and molecules, as well as the syntheses of ligand-protected gold nanoclusters with in situ catalytic active sites.

Selected Awards & Honors 

Distinguished Research Achievement Award, Brown University (2019); Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy & Dynamics, American Physical Society (2014); American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow (2007); Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award for Research, Scholarship & Arts, Washington State University (2007); Humboldt Senior Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany (2006); John Simon Guggenheim Fellow (2005); American Physical Society Fellow (2003); Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (1997)