Jui Hsin Wang

Published January 21, 2016 This content is archived.

Jui Hsin Wang, a biochemical researcher and Einstein Professor of Science Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry, died Jan. 17 in Canterbury Woods, Amherst, after a long illness. He was 94.

Wang, who came to UB in 1972, founded and directed the university’s Bioenergetics Laboratory. He retired in 2006.

His research focused on the design and synthesis of inhibitors that act as antiviral and anti-cancer agents, and the synthesis of advanced electroactive materials. He authored or co-authored 248 articles in scholarly publications and was awarded several patents in conjunction with other UB researchers.

Born in Beijing, Wang earned a bachelor’s degree from National Southwest Associated University in Kunming, China, in 1945. He completed his doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis in 1949, and went on to become a postdoctoral fellow there for the next two years.

In 1951, Wang went to Yale University as a research fellow and became the Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biophysics.

He received an honorary master’s degree from Yale in 1960 and was a Guggenheim fellow at Cambridge University in 1960-61.

In 1970, Wang was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which honors distinguished experts and intellectuals from many fields.

A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.