Being dedicated, curious and having a self-described persistence and “passion for science” has contributed to Yang’s already successful career. In 2010, she was honored by President Barack Obama with a Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
It was because of that curiosity that she once took a course in entrepreneurship. She filed her first patent as a graduate student. Now Yang, the Edwin H. and Florence G. Skinner Professor in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, holds the most patents and disclosures of any female faculty member.