UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Graduate School alumnus Xiaoyun Ding is the recipient of the 2022 Graduate School Alumni Society Early Career Award. This award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated exceptional success in their chosen field within the first ten years after obtaining their graduate degree.

Ding earned a doctoral degree in engineering science and mechanics in 2013. Currently, he is the Bruce S. Anderson Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Ding conducts interdisciplinary research at the frontiers of Biomedicine, Microfluidics, Acoustics, Drug delivery, electronics, and Micro/Nano Engineering.

According to one nominator, "Ding is a passionate, inspiring, talented and accomplished young researcher with a remarkable trace record of being creative. ... He has been very prolific with more than 35 journal articles to date and his work has significant impact as it has been cited more than 3,800 times and highlighted by hundreds of media reports as well as seven journal cover images."

In 2021, he earned a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help improve cancer-fighting tools and cut patient costs, exploring ways to streamline delivery of lifesaving treatments into immune cells.

Ding is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 NIH MIRA Early Stage Investigator Award and the 2020 Lab Venture Challenge Award from the University of Colorado.

For his accomplishments, Ding was recognized during the Graduate School Alumni Recognition Dinner on March 26.