Guosong Hong receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for the development of novel neuroengineering tools combining materials science and biology to study the nervous system using ultrasound, light, and radio-frequency-based interfaces.

Growing up in a working class family in Hefei, China, Hong first discovered a love of chemistry through American scientist Robert Brent’s The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, which was translated into Chinese in the 1980s. The book spurred early laboratory experiments in his own home, and ultimately drove Hong to want to pursue studies in the United States—the origin of Hong’s earliest scientific text. 

While completing his PhD at Stanford, he developed a novel approach to deep-tissue imaging in the brain using infrared technology, which led to first-author papers in Nature Medicine and Nature Biomedical Engineering. While completing postdoctoral work at Harvard University, he developed a minimally invasive nanoelectronic tool to interface with the retina, allowing scientists to better understand how the eye perceives light. 

Most recently, Hong and his team used FDA-approved food dyes to reversibly render the tissues of live rodents transparent, by manipulating the refractive index of water to match that of biological tissues. This breakthrough offers a range of potential biological, diagnostic, and therapeutic benefits by facilitating deep-tissue imaging in a noninvasive manner.

Throughout his career, Hong has been motivated by the interplay between the physical sciences and biomedicine, as is evidenced in his most recent work with food dyes: using a straightforward solution deeply rooted in advanced physics to make medical imaging and diagnosis more accessible and accurate.

Hong credits his success to the interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of scientific research and discovery in the United States. “The winds of academic freedom in the U.S. have guided me to where I stand today, ready to pioneer new solutions and discoveries.”

Awards & Accomplishments

Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (2024)
Young Innovator Award in Nano Research, Springer-Nature (2023)
Nanoscale Emerging Investigators Award, The Royal Society of Chemistry (2023)
Teaching Honor Roll, Stanford University (2023)
Rita Allen Scholars Award, Rita Allen Foundation (2021)
NSF CAREER Award, National Science Foundation (2021)
Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford University (2021)
Ethics, Society and Technology Grant Award, Stanford University (2021)
Science PINS Prize for Neuromodulation, Science Magazine (2020)
Highly Cited Researcher, Web of Science (2019-21)
“35 Innovators Under 35” Award, MIT Technology Review (2019)
Pathway to Independence Award (Parent K99/R00), National Institutes of Health (2017)
AHA Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Heart Association (2016)
Honorable Mention Award, The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) International Award for Young Chemists (2015)
Graduate Student Award, Materials Research Society (2014)
William S. Johnson Graduate Fellowship, Stanford University (2013)
Abbott Laboratory Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Stanford University (2010)