Kan Wang
Chinese-American agronomist
Kan Wang (born 1957) is a Chinese-American agronomist. As a professor at Iowa State University, Wang was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her "advances in genetic engineering in plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens."
Early life and education
Wang completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from Fudan University in 1982 and her PhD in plant biology from the Ghent University. Her thesis advisor was Marc Van Montagu.
Career
Wang joined the Agronomy Department at Iowa State University in December 1995 as the director of the newly established Plant Transformation Facility. She later held the Global Professorship in Biotechnology. In 2007, she collaborated with Brian Trewyn, Francois Torney, and Victor Lin to become the first scientists to use nanotechnology to penetrate rigid plant cell walls and deliver DNA and chemicals with precise control. Wang later demonstrated the ability to deliver proteins and DNA into plant cells simultaneously using mesoporous silica nanoparticles. As a result of her research, she was honored with one of the 2015 Iowa Women of Innovation Award.
As a full professor, Wang received a three-year, $830,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to "develop a suite of technological tools that could allow scientists to develop yams with improved yields, nutritional value and better resistance to stresses." She was later awarded the 2017 Fellow Award from the Society for In Vitro Biology. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wang was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for her "advances in genetic engineering in plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens." She also received the 2020 Outstanding Achievement in Research Award.
The public source identifies “Kan Wang” as chinese-American agronomist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wang, Chinese-American and agronomist.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Kan Wang”, the useful work is to connect “chinese-American agronomist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q106912000. VIAF identifies the subject as 23826658. The Library of Congress control number is n94039500. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1982, 1995 and 2007.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kan Wang”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kan Wang primary sources, Kan Wang archive and Wang research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kan Wang”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kan Wang” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.