Wang Jun (; born June 4, 1976) is a Chinese scientist, founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of iCarbonX, and former CEO of the

Beijing Genomics Institute BGI Group, formerly Beijing Genomics Institute, is a Chinese genomics company with headquarters in Yantian, Shenzhen, Yantian, Shenzhen. The company was originally formed in 1999 as a genetics research center to participate in the Human Genome Pro ...

(now known as BGI). While studying as a PhD student at Peking University, in 1999 Wang founded the bioinformatics group at BGI, which lead China's contribution to

sequencing In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succ ...

1% of the

Human Genome Project The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the base pairs that make up human DNA, and of identifying, mapping and sequencing all of the genes of the human genome from both a ...

. His team was subsequently involved in efforts to genetically sequence the first Asian person, the

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

plant,

SARS Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the virus SARS-CoV-1, the first identified strain of the SARS-related coronavirus. The first known cases occurred in November 2002, and the ...

, the

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white animal coat, coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. ...

silkworms ''Bombyx mori'', commonly known as the domestic silk moth, is a moth species belonging to the family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of '' Bombyx mandarina'', the wild silk moth. Silkworms are the larvae of silk moths. The silkworm is of ...

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...

s, and the human gut

microbiome A microbiome () is the community of microorganisms that can usually be found living together in any given habitat. It was defined more precisely in 1988 by Whipps ''et al.'' as "a characteristic microbial community occupying a reasonably wel ...

, amongst other organisms. He was an Ole Romer professor at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

and co-authored more than 100 papers. In July 2015, he announced he would be stepping down from his role at BGI to set up iCarbonX and focus on developing

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

, saying that "both life sciences and genomics have now run into a bottleneck in handling data from tens of thousands of samples... AI and machine learning could do something with big data and for people's health." Presenting his efforts in setting up iCarbonX and establishing a big data platform for health management at the TED 2017 Conference.

Awards

*National Excellent PhD Thesis for Highest Academic Standing from the Ministry of Education, China *Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Award from the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

*Lundbeck 2005 Talent Prize *Cell's "40 under 40" *

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

(2012) *Fortune's 2013 "40 under 40" *Human Genome Organization (HUGO) 2015 Chen Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in Human Genetic and Genomic Research

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Jun 1976 births Living people Artificial intelligence researchers Academic staff of the University of Copenhagen 20th-century Chinese scientists 21st-century Chinese scientists Peking University alumni Chinese chief executives 21st-century Chinese businesspeople