The Royal Academy of Sciences New Zealand announced the election of new members earlier in March. Xiaowei Zhuang, an alumna of the School of the Gifted Young, joins this illustrious group.

Xiaowei Zhuang is a professor of science and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Harvard University. Born in Jiangsu, China, in January 1972, she was admitted to the School of the Gifted Young (SGY) in 1987 at the age of 15. She received her B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China, Ph.D. Degree in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and postdoctoral training in biophysics at Stanford University. In 2001, she became an assistant professor at Harvard University, where she was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and full professor in 2006. She was elected as a member of the American National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the American National Academy of Medicine.

Zhuang’s research pioneers in the development and application of single-molecule biology and high-resolution biological imaging technology. Her research has greatly contributed to the study of biological molecules and their assembly processes in vitro and in live cells.