Nongjian Tao, 57, passed away March 15, 2020. Nongjian came to the US in 1984 to study for a PhD in physics at ASU. He was chosen to attend US universities under the "China-US Physics Examination and Application" (CUSPEA) program, started by Chinese-American Nobel Laureate TD Lee as one of the first openings between the two countries. As a graduate student, he made several key discoveries while investigating the physics of DNA molecules, publishing 12 papers on the subject in the latter years of his PhD studies. After postdoctoral research at City College, New York, he returned to ASU, working in the area of Nanoscience.

In 1992, he was recruited to a faculty position at Florida International University (FIU). While there, he carried out a landmark experiment in molecular electronics, at a time when he had no graduate students or other help in the lab. The 1996 single-author paper describing his remarkable result won him the prestigious Hellmuth Fischer Medal in 2003. He also invented a method for greatly increasing the sensitivity of chemical measurements based on the reflection of light.

Nongjian was recruited as a full professor in Electrical Engineering by ASU in 2001, becoming Director of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors in the Biodesign Institute in 2008. While at ASU, he founded two companies based on his inventions. Biosensing Instrument, founded in 2004 (https://biosensingusa.com/), and Breezing (founded in 2011) (https://breezing.com/) He was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award in 2004, the Arizona Technology Enterprise Innovator of the Year in 2006, and the Microscopy Today Innovation Award in 2013.

He published 350 research papers which, at the time of death had been cited by other researchers nearly 30,000 times. The impact of his papers is measured in his "h-index" of 90, greater than that of most Nobel Prize winners. His paper on a new way to measure the electrical properties of molecules alone has been cited more than 2000 times. He was awarded 26 US patents, most of which have been utilized in new products produced both by the companies he founded and by other companies. This body of work was recognized in his election to fellowship in professional societies in addition to many other awards. He was elected fellow of AAAS and served as an editor of the Journal ACS Sensors from 2005 to the time of his death.

In addition to his wife, Shuang Huang, leaves behind a daughter, a son, two brothers, two sisters and his mother. A private family service will be held. A memorial visitation was scheduled March 20, 2020. Gifts may be made to a memorial scholarship as follows: Make checks out to “ ASU Foundation" and write "Dr. Nongjian Tao Memorial Scholarship" in the memo line. Send to: ASU Foundation Attn: Financial Services P.O. Box 2260 Tempe, Arizona 85280-2260. (Source: ASU Foundation)