Ching Wan Tang
Ching Wan Tang (鄧青雲; born July 23, 1947) is a Hong Kong–American physical chemist who helped start the field of organic electronics. He co‑invented the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and the heterojunction organic photovoltaic cell, key technologies for modern displays and solar cells. He is the IAS Bank of East Asia Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and was previously the Doris Johns Cherry Professor at the University of Rochester.
Tang was born in Yuen Long, British Hong Kong. He attended Yuen Long Public Secondary School and King’s College. He earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of British Columbia and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cornell University in 1975. He joined Eastman Kodak in 1975, where he helped develop efficient OLEDs in the 1970s and rose through the ranks, becoming a distinguished fellow in 2003.
In 2006, Tang moved to the University of Rochester as the Doris Johns Cherry Professor, and later joined HKUST as the Bank of East Asia Professor. His work on OLEDs and organic solar cells helped launch the field of organic electronics and advanced flat-panel display technology, including materials, device designs, and backplane improvements.
Tang has received many honors, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2011) and election to the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2018) for OLED. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and became a founding member of the Academy of Science of Hong Kong in 2015. He has also earned such awards as the Kyoto Prize (2019) and the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal (2017).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:36 (CET).