GoKawiilWhen Yong Wang recently received one of the highest honors for early-career data visualization researchers, it marked a milestone in an extraordinary journey that began far from the world’s technology hubs.
Wang was born in a small farming village in southwestern China to parents with little formal education and few electronic devices. Today the IEEE member and associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics is an assistant professor of computing and data science at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore. He studies how people can employ data visualization techniques to get more out of artificial intelligence tools.
YONG WANG EMPLOYER Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore POSITION Assistant professor of computing and data science IEEE MEMBER GRADE Member ALMA MATERS Harbin Institute of Technology in China; Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
“Visualization helps people understand complex ideas,” Wang says. “If we design these tools well, they can make advanced technologies accessible to everyone.”
For his work in the field, the IEEE Computer Society visualization and graphics technical committee presented him with its 2025 Significant New Researcher Award. The recognition highlights his growing influence in fields including human-computer interaction and human-AI collaboration—areas becoming more important as the world generates more data than humans can easily interpret.
Growing up in rural Hunan
Wang was born in southwestern Hunan Province. China’s economy was still developing, and life in his village was modest. Most families in Hunan grew rice, vegetables, and fruit to support themselves.
Wang’s parents worked in agriculture too, and his father often traveled to cities to earn money working in a factory or on construction jobs. The extra income helped support the family and made it possible for Wang to attend college.
“I’m very grateful to my parents,” Wang says. “They never attended university, but they strongly supported my education.”
“If we build tools that help people understand information, then more people can participate in science and innovation. That’s the real power of visualization.”
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