Dr. Zhenan Bao is a materials scientist and chemical engineer whose pioneering work in flexible electronics and electronic skin is redefining the relationship between technology and the human body. A professor at Stanford, she has dedicated her career to designing soft, sensing materials that mimic the properties of human skin, work that is poised to revolutionize biomedicine, robotics, and wearable technology.

I photographed Bao on October 1, 2024, at Stanford, beginning in her office, where she walked me through her latest breakthroughs. On her desk were thin, almost weightless sheets of flexible electronics, materials that could one day seamlessly integrate with the human body, responding to touch, movement, and temperature. From there, we moved to her lab, a striking hybrid of a wet lab and an engineering space, where chemistry and technology converged to create materials that seemed almost alive in their responsiveness.

Bao’s work blurs the traditional boundaries between biology and engineering. She envisions a future where technology is not merely functional but an extension of human experience, skin-like materials that restore sensation to prosthetic limbs, wearable sensors that track health with near-perfect precision, devices that do not simply monitor the body but interact with it in profoundly intuitive ways.

Yet for all its futuristic implications, her research is also deeply rooted in sustainability. Bao is not just innovating for innovation’s sake; she is reimagining materials in ways that are biodegradable, self-healing, and environmentally responsible. In a world increasingly dependent on electronics, she is pioneering a path toward a more harmonious integration of technology into everyday life, one where the artificial does not simply coexist with the organic but enhances it.

Her work is a reminder that science is not just about discovery but about redefining the possible. In Bao’s vision, the future of technology is not cold and rigid but soft, adaptive, and intimately human.