Wang was one of the first Chinese women to make a career in American higher education and scientific research.

Wang was born in Suzhou, one of the five daughters of a government official father, Wong Song-Wei, and a social reformer(women's rights/young girl equal education movement) mother, Wangxie Changda [zh] (王謝長達).

[11] Her sister Chi Nyok Wang attended Mount Holyoke College and returned to China, where she was principal of a girls' school in Suzhou.

[12] Wang taught at the University of Chicago during and after her doctoral studies, and is considered the first Chinese woman to serve on the faculty of an American college.

[8] At a Veterans Administration laboratory in Topeka after 1954, she was co-leader of studies on "Metabolism of Certain Types of Psychiatric Patients", "Effect on Blood Lipids of Orally Administered Detergents", and "A Study on the Influence of Foods on Serum Glutamic Oxalo-acetic Transaminase".