Welcome to the Team!
Zhang Wang, Ph.D.
Director of Medicinal Chemistry
Dr. Zhang Wang began his role as the director of medicinal chemistry in March 2024. Before this, he served as a senior scientist at Arcus Biosciences and as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Albany, SUNY. Zhang received the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award in 2018. He completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at Columbia University under the supervision of Professor Samuel J. Danishefsky and his postdoctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Sir David W. C. MacMillan. As the director of medicinal chemistry, Zhang has overseen several drug discovery projects related to neurological disorders, such as epilepsy and traumatic brain injury. Zhang has always been fascinated by natural products with unique architectures and functions, and he enjoys the challenges associated with their total synthesis.
Sarah Solar
Program Coordinator
Sarah Solar recently joined us as our program coordinator! Sarah is a UC Davis graduate with a B.S. in global disease biology. Before coming to the IPN, they worked as a lab manager for a campus public health nutrition research lab. Sarah plays a crucial role in our operations, managing tasks including social media, data analysis and event planning. They are incredibly passionate about the IPN’s goals of creating equitable access to mental health care through psychedelics and psychedelic analogues. In their free time, Sarah is an avid board game fan and frequently goes on walks with their Italian greyhound, Finnegan, and all his sighthound friends.