Yongkang Wang has been a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPIP) since 2024, where he applies nonlinear vibrational spectroscopic techniques to probe water and ion behavior at electrified, nanoconfined interfaces. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2024 from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and was appointed Group Leader at MPIP in Germany in the same year. His research focuses on molecular-level insights into interfacial water structure, ion-specific effects, and electrostatics at nanoconfined interfaces using surface-specific sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy, with applications in electrochemistry, nanofluidics, and materials science. His interdisciplinary work has resulted in more than 40 peer-reviewed publications, including first- or corresponding-author articles in Nature, Nat. Commun., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., J. Am. Chem. Soc., and Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., reflecting interdisciplinary contributions across chemistry, physics, and engineering.