Wong continued his postdoctoral research work with
George M. Whitesides at
Harvard University from 1982 to 1983, then began his independent career at
Texas A&M University in the chemistry department. During his tenure at
Texas A&M University, he went through the ranks including assistant professor, associate professor, and professor of chemistry. Wong was appointed as the
Ernest W. Hahn Chair and professor of chemistry at the
Scripps Research Institute and while he was a faculty member at Scripps, he also served as head of the
Frontier Research Program on Glycotechnology at
Riken in Japan and director of the Genomics Research Center at
Academia Sinica, and was later appointed by the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the President of Academia Sinica. Now, he is serving at the Scripps Research Institute as Scripps Family Chair Professor of Chemistry. Wong is best known for his original contributions to glycoscience, especially his development of
chemo-enzymatic methods for the practical synthesis of
oligosaccharides and
glycoproteins and the hierarchical and programmable one-pot synthesis method for the rapid preparation of a large number of oligosaccharides. The original synthetic methods developed by Wong along with his work on the development of glycan microarrays for the high-throughput analysis of protein-carbohydrate interaction and the design of
glycosylation probes have enabled not only the fundamental study of glycosylation in biology but also the clinical development of carbohydrate-based medicines, including vaccines and homogeneous antibodies for the treatment of cancers and
infectious diseases. In 2016, there was a media report, speculating that he was possibly involved in an insider trading scandal related to a biotech company
OBI Pharma, Inc. headquartered in Taiwan, because his adult daughter had held shares in OBI Pharma. When the allegations surfaced in March 2016, Wong was in the United States. He was quite disappointed by the false report and attempted to resign his position as president of the Academia Sinica twice. Both requests were rejected by the president of Taiwan,
Ma Ying-jeou. After further consideration, Ma chose to approve Wong's resignation on 10 May. In February 2018, the Shilin District Prosecutors Office announced that charges of insider trading against Wong had been dropped, though an investigation into a possible failure in disclosing his assets during tech transfer of his invention had not yet concluded by the Control Yuan. In April 2022, the Control Yuan publicly announced that Wong did not violate any rule. ==Recognition==