The Queen’s community is remembering Suning Wang, a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Chemistry who died Monday, April 27 after a long illness. She was 61.

Dr. Wang arrived at Queen’s in 1996 after starting her teaching career at the University of Windsor. Born in Nanjing, China she earned a B.Sc. from Jilin University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Wang was well-known and highly respected within the international chemistry community as well as at Queen’s. She was included in the first group of Distinguished University Professor recipients in 2019. Throughout her career she received numerous major awards including a Killam Research Fellowship (2012-14) from the Canada Council for the Arts.

In 2015 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada.

Dr. Wang’s research focused on the development of new organometallic chemistry and luminescent materials chemistry. Her research interests also included the work on organic photovoltaics and nanoparticles, stimuli-responsive materials as well as OLEDs. Dr. Wang and her group developed a simple method of producing graphene-like lattice through light exposure, which may contribute to a huge field of future use.

During her career she co-authored more than 300 publications.

Dr. Wang also excelled in her work with students and in 2018 was named the inaugural winner of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship. During her career she supervised more than 70 graduate students, including 34 Ph.D. students, many of whom are already well-known scientists and hold faculty positions.