Wan graduated with a B.S. in engineering from Dalian University of Technology in 1982 and received his PhD degree at Tohoku University in 1996.[1] He has been a professor at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) since 1999, and was the director of ICCAS from 2004 to 2013. Afterwards, he directed the Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences and the Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, CAS.[2] From 2015 to 2017, Wan was the president of the University of Science and Technology of China.
Wan improved the stability and resolution of electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope (ECTSM) devices, and resolved a number of related problems, such as the STM imaging mechanisms of various types of chiral molecules. He also designed a series of high-performance electrode materials based on micro/nano composite structures.[3]