Press Clips from 2026
October 9, 2026
UC San Diego researcher awarded $800,000 no strings attached
When Liangfang Zhang got the news, it was a typical morning. He had just finished dropping his daughter off at school and was on his way to his lab. But then something unusual happened. He received a phone call at seven in the morning -- an hour he would not normally receive messages. Like any good scientist he was skeptical. Zhang was awarded with a MacArthur fellowship, a prestigious grant given to inspiring creatives across the country. He was recognized for pioneering a new category of medicine called nanomedicine. Full Story
October 1, 2026
Pain, struggle, and hope: This year's scientist MacArthur Fellows
University of California, San Diego chemical and bioengineer Liangfang Zhang had just dropped his daughter off at school when he received a call from an unknown number with a Chicago area code. If he had been at work, he probably would have ignored it, but he answered instead. The person at the other end of the line confirmed who he was, then asked if he was in a place where he could have a private conversation. They then informed him that he was selected as a 2026 MacArthur Fellow. Full Story
October 1, 2026
Organic chemist and nanoscientist named 2026 MacArthur Fellows
Organic chemist Song Lin of Stanford University and chemical and nanoengineer Liangfang Zhang of the University of California San Diego are among the 20 people who have received 2026 MacArthur Fellowships. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation website states that these $800,000 "no-strings-attached" awards, often called genius grants, are given to "extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential." Fellows represent a wide range of professional disciplines in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Full Story
September 30, 2026
UCSD professor who pioneered medicinal Trojan horses awarded prestigious MacArthur 'genius grant'
As a chemical engineer, UC San Diego professor Liangfang Zhang could have opted for career paths that had nothing to do with medicine or the greater human good. Yet for more than 15 years, Zhang has used his expertise to figure out how to disguise microscopic nanoparticles that can bypass the human immune system and precisely target ailments inside the body. For creating that technology, Zhang was named Tuesday as one of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's 2026 fellows. Full Story
January 28, 2026
Plant Viruses: The Unsung Heroes That Deliver Drugs and Destroy Tumors
Before picking up a pipette, Nicole Steinmetz, today a biomedical engineer at the University of California San Diego, picked up a pair of skates gifted by her grandmother. Her affinity for skating caught the attention of coaches, and in her early teens, she was drafted for the German National Team in Artistic Roller Figure Skating. But skating was far from her only love. She aspired to be a scientist. Now, Steinmetz engineers plant virus nanoparticles into versatile drug-delivery platforms. This work expanded into cancer vaccines and immunotherapy. Full Story