Dr. Xiangqun Zeng is currently a distinguished Professor at Department of Chemistry at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan. She received her Ph.D. in electrochemistry and surface chemistry from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1997. Since joining Oakland University in 2001, Dr. Zeng has established an internationally recognized, interdisciplinary research program in chemical sensor and biosensor development.  

The general approach of her sensor technology comes from her motivation to develop next generation chemical sensor and biosensors for real-time in vitro, ex vivo, in vivo, in situ detection of important chemical and bioanalytes with high temporal, spatial resolution and sensitivity. This will enable sensors to provide immediate feedback related to the molecular and cellular microenvironments just like our own five senses that can provide immediate feedback of the world around us for a broad range of applications including critical health care, safety, industrial hygiene, process controls, product quality controls, food safety, climate change, manufacturing, human comfort controls, emission monitoring, automotive, clinical diagnostics, home safety alarms, homeland security etc. Incorporating electrochemistry, spectroscopy, material science, bioengineering, biology and medicine, her lab has published more than 100 high quality peer reviewed papers and five book chapters. 

She is an organizer for the 18th international meeting on chemical sensors in 2021 and an Editorial Board member of Journal of Electrochemistry. Dr. Zeng is a regular NIH and NSF grant and panel reviewer, e.g., NIH Instrument and System Development Study Panel standing membrane (July 2015- 2021) and she has served on more than 60 US federal grant review panels.   Dr. Zeng has received numerous awards to recognize her contribution including Oakland University’s New Investigator Research Excellence Award (2005), two Academic Excellence Recognition awards (2011-2012), the International Service Award (2017), the Research Excellence Award (2015), three Most Active Grant Seeker Awards (2017-2019), President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz Innovation Research Award (2017) and Frank Giblin Lifetime Achievement Award (2020) that is given to the principal investigator with the most funding over the course of a faculty’s career at Oakland University.

 In addition to her research, Dr. Zeng is a strong educator and mentor. She has trained over 80 students/postdoc/visiting scholar (24 postdocs, 9 visiting professors including one Fulbright scholar, 12 M.S. thesis and 8 Ph.D. thesis, over 20 undergraduate students, as thesis co-advisor for 5 Ph.D. and 1 M.S. student at other institutions). Seventeen of them are academic professors/scientists in US and other countries and many of them are industry scientists and leaders.  She was nominated by Oakland University for the NSF Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2012 and ACS Analytical Chemistry Award in 2014.  Dr. Zeng was featured in a book entitled “Women Who Changed the World the Journey and the Joy” (Sunbury Press Inc. 2015).  Details of Dr. Zeng research, education and service activities can be found in her website: https://sites.google.com/oakland.edu/zeng/