UCLA Bioengineer Jun Chen Awarded Top Honor for Early-Career Scientist in Materials Research
Jun Chen, an associate professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Early-Career Investigator Award by the Materials Research Society — the highest distinction for an early-career scientist in materials research, with just one researcher selected each year from an international pool of nominees.
The prestigious award comes with a $5,000 cash prize and an invitation to present at the 2025 MRS spring meeting on April 9 in Seattle, Washington. Chen was recognized for his groundbreaking discovery of the giant magnetoelastic effect in soft materials, a breakthrough that paves the way for intrinsically waterproof and biocompatible bioelectronic devices for health care and energy applications.
Traditionally observed only in rigid materials, the magnetoelastic effect describes how a material’s magnetic properties can be altered under stress. Chen’s research has now demonstrated this phenomenon in soft material systems, unlocking new possibilities for flexible, self-powered bioelectronics, with applications in personalized health care and sustainable energy. His lab recently developed a permanent fluidic magnet, an advancement for liquid bioelectronics that could be used in conformal organ monitoring and other biomedical procedures.
Since joining UCLA Samueli in 2019, Chen has led the Bioelectronics Research Group and amassed several early-career accolades, including awards from the Office of Naval Research, the American Heart Association and the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering. He has also received UCLA Samueli’s V. M. Watanabe Excellence in Research Award , the UC Systemwide Shu Chien Early Career Award, the Inaugural AAASE Rising Star Award and the Hisako Terasaki Young Innovator Award. For six consecutive years, Chen has been recognized as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers by Clarivate, an international data and analytics firm.
Chen now joins a distinguished list of UCLA-affiliated recipients of the MRS award, including UCLA Samueli bioengineering and mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Dino Di Carlo (2016), physical sciences and electrical and computer engineering professor Prineha Narang while at Harvard University (2022), and chemistry and biochemistry and bioengineering professor Timothy Deming while at UC Santa Barbara (2003).