Haptics, Bioelectronics & HCI

Engineering how
we feel & heal.

I'm Wen Li, a Materials Research Society (MRS) Graduate Student Gold Award winner and Benjamin Ball Freud Merit Scholar, and I build wearable bioelectronic interfaces that stimulate, sense, and model human perception and support healthcare.

Sixth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago.
Advised by Bozhi Tian & Pedro Lopes.

Explore my research Get in touch

Wen Li outdoors beside a river. — University of Chicago Chicago, IL

Stimulate & SensingElectrical stimulation & tactile sensing

Electronics & BiointerfaceWearable circuits & electrical interface

Therapy & PerceptionHealthcare & personalized haptics

Selected work

Research at the interface.

Haptics, Bioelectronics & HCI
grounded in material science and biomedical engineering

My research bridges biomedical engineering, materials science, and human–computer interaction (HCI). My interdisciplinary publication record spans both leading scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Chemical Engineering, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Sustainability, Device, and Matter, and premier HCI conferences, including ACM UIST.

Research overview showing electrochemical biointerfaces for therapy, electrical interfaces for thermal referral, and wearable input/output interfaces for personalized haptic perception. — Wearable bioelectronic interfaces for therapy and perception.View full-size image

Wearable haptic input/output device with an electrode array on the forearm. — Wearable haptic input / output

Robot teleoperation demonstration with a wearable haptic interface, robot camera views, and spatial cue maps. — Haptic-guided robot teleoperation

Preprint · 2026Under review

Learning personalized haptic perception

Wen Li, E. Magnus Adams, Zijie Xu, Jiawen Yao, Aybala Esmer, Xiaoyue Ni, Bozhi Tian, Pedro Lopes

A wearable haptic interface registers physical stimulation inputs and subjective perceptual outputs in a shared spatial coordinate frame. This enables personalized tactile and thermal perception models for perceptual prediction and inverse haptic rendering, with applications in VR, interpersonal haptic communication, and robot teleoperation.

Multi-modal sensory integration
Embedded system
Bayesian learning
Robot teleoperation

Read the preprint

Publication details

A wearable input/output interface learns personalized models of haptic perception.
Wen Li, E. Magnus Adams, Zijie Xu, Jiawen Yao, Aybala Esmer, Xiaoyue Ni, Bozhi Tian, Pedro Lopes.
Preprint, 2026 (under review).

Study illustration comparing vibrotactile and electrotactile thermal referral in VR.

ACM UIST · 2026

Electrotactile Improves Thermal Referral

Wen Li, Rong Ni, Bozhi Tian, Pedro Lopes

Electrotactile stimulation extends thermal referral to skin locations without thermal actuators. Compared with vibration-based referral, this improves cold referral and reduces distracting tactile sensations, enabling more realistic non-contact thermal experiences in VR.

VR
Wearable hardware
Psychophysics

Read the paper Watch video

Publication details

Electrotactile Improves Thermal Referral.
Wen Li, Rong Ni, Bozhi Tian, Pedro Lopes.
ACM UIST, 2026.

Research figure illustrating a portable hydrogel electrochemical device for hydrogen delivery.

Nature Chemical Engineering · 2025

Hydrogel electrochemical cell for hydrogen therapy

Wen Li, Jing Zhang, Romain Nith, Jiping Yue, Ananth Kamath, Chuanwang Yang, Chen Wei, Brennan Lee, Pengju Li, Hsiu-Ming Tsai, Tiantian Guo, Changxu Sun, Saehyun Kim, Lewis L. Shi, Pedro Lopes, Lihua Jin, Bozhi Tian

A hydrogel electrochemical cell uses the hydrogel as the electrolyte, reaction medium, and therapeutic delivery reservoir. It integrates hydrogen generation, local storage, and sustained release for electronically controlled, localized delivery, validated in preclinical ischemia–reperfusion and pressure-ulcer models.

Electrochemistry
PCB design
Animal model
Hydrogels

Read the paper

Publication details

Hydrogen evolution and dynamics in hydrogel electrochemical cells for ischemia–reperfusion therapy.
Wen Li, Jing Zhang, Romain Nith, Jiping Yue, Ananth Kamath, Chuanwang Yang, Chen Wei, Brennan Lee, Pengju Li, Hsiu-Ming Tsai, Tiantian Guo, Changxu Sun, Saehyun Kim, Lewis L. Shi, Pedro Lopes, Lihua Jin, Bozhi Tian.
Nature Chemical Engineering, 2025.

Scientific figure from the nanoporous silicon photoelectrochemical study.

Nature Nanotechnology · 2025

Gold-modified nanoporous silicon for photoelectrochemical regulation of intracellular condensates

Jing Zhang, Pengju Li, Jiping Yue, Lingyuan Meng, Wen Li, Chuanwang Yang, Saehyun Kim, Zhe Cheng, Ananth Kamath, Samira Siahrostami, Bozhi Tian

Gold-modified nanoporous silicon generates hydrogen peroxide under physiological conditions and regulates intracellular stress granules through extracellular photoelectrochemistry. This links light-controlled chemical production to cellular stress responses, with protective effects evaluated in an ex vivo myocardial ischemia–reperfusion model.

Read the paper

Publication details

Gold-modified nanoporous silicon for photoelectrochemical regulation of intracellular condensates
Jing Zhang, Pengju Li, Jiping Yue, Lingyuan Meng, Wen Li, Chuanwang Yang, Saehyun Kim, Zhe Cheng, Ananth Kamath, Samira Siahrostami, Bozhi Tian.
Nature Nanotechnology, 2025.

Scientific figure from the monolithic silicon photostimulation study.

Nature · 2024

Monolithic silicon for high spatiotemporal translational photostimulation

Pengju Li, Jing Zhang, Hidenori Hayashi, Jiping Yue, Wen Li, Chuanwang Yang, Changxu Sun, Jiuyun Shi, Judah Huberman-Shlaes, Narutoshi Hibino, Bozhi Tian

Monolithic silicon interfaces enable leadless, multisite optical stimulation without genetic modification, addressing constraints of wired electrode arrays and supporting minimally invasive cardiac pacing.

Read the paper

Publication details

Monolithic silicon for high spatiotemporal translational photostimulation
Pengju Li, Jing Zhang, Hidenori Hayashi, Jiping Yue, Wen Li, Chuanwang Yang, Changxu Sun, Jiuyun Shi, Judah Huberman-Shlaes, Narutoshi Hibino, Bozhi Tian.
Nature, 2024.

Overview of multiscale colloid-based materials for biomedical applications.

Langmuir · 2023

Perspectives on Multiscale Colloid-Based Materials for Biomedical Applications

Wen Li, Judah Huberman-Shlaes, Bozhi Tian

A perspective connecting nanoscale chemistry and microscale structure in colloidal materials to macroscopic biointerfaces. It links design across these scales to biomedical opportunities in spatial imaging, localized delivery, and interactions with biological systems.

Read the paper

Publication details

Perspectives on Multiscale Colloid-Based Materials for Biomedical Applications
Wen Li, Judah Huberman-Shlaes, Bozhi Tian.
Langmuir, 2023.

Scientific figure showing a coordination adaptable polymer network.

CCS Chemistry · 2022

A strong and rigid coordination adaptable network that can be reprocessed and recycled at mild conditions

Wen Li, Hong-Qin Wang, Wen-Tong Gao, Zhangxia Wang, Pan Xu, Haibo Ma, Cheng-Hui Li

Coordination adaptable polymer networks combine mechanical strength and rigidity with reprocessing and recycling under mild conditions. Reversible metal–ligand bonds address the tension between strong networks and material recovery, allowing reuse without sacrificing mechanical performance.

Read the paper

Publication details

A strong and rigid coordination adaptable network that can be reprocessed and recycled at mild conditions
Wen Li, Hong-Qin Wang, Wen-Tong Gao, Zhangxia Wang, Pan Xu, Haibo Ma, Cheng-Hui Li.
CCS Chemistry, 2022.

A few updates

Along the way.

Updates on Wen’s research
and recognition.

Aug 2026
Wen’s paper “Electrotactile Improves Thermal Referral” was accepted at ACM UIST 2026.
Dec 2025
Wen received the Olshansky Graduate Student Travel Award at UChicago.
Dec 2025
Wen received the MRS Graduate Student Gold Award and Best Poster Award.
Jun 2025
Wen was selected as a Benjamin Ball Freud Merit Scholar.

A little more about Wen

Beyond the lab.

Outside the lab, Wen sings bass with UChorus, climbs, cycles around Chicago, and plays Go. Watch Wen’s recent performance

2021 — present

University of Chicago

Sixth-year Ph.D. candidate · Chemistry
Bioelectronic interfaces for therapy & perception

Jan — Jun 2020

UC Berkeley

Exchange Student · Materials Science and Engineering

2017 — 2021

Nanjing University

B.S. in Chemistry with Honors

Peer review

Wen reviews for venues including ACS Nano, Device, IMWUT, EuroHaptics, and IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

Ideas start with a conversation.

Let’s make contact.

wenli@uchicago.edu

Engineering howwe feel & heal.

Research at the interface.

Learning personalized haptic perception

Electrotactile Improves Thermal Referral

Hydrogel electrochemical cell for hydrogen therapy

Gold-modified nanoporous silicon for photoelectrochemical regulation of intracellular condensates

Monolithic silicon for high spatiotemporal translational photostimulation

Perspectives on Multiscale Colloid-Based Materials for Biomedical Applications

A strong and rigid coordination adaptable network that can be reprocessed and recycled at mild conditions

Along the way.

Beyond the lab.

University of Chicago

UC Berkeley

Nanjing University

Peer review

Let’s make contact.

Engineering how
we feel & heal.