Zhang received his BS in physics from
Peking University, China in 1982. He subsequently earned his
M.Sc and
PhD in physics from
Brown University, RI, USA in 1983 and 1986 respectively. He was a research physicist in Amoco Research Center and research scientist in
Columbia University. He was appointed as associate professor in the department of physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Jan, 1992. He was promoted to Professor and Distinguished Professor in Science in May 1997 and Sep. 2001 respectively. He was elected as the Fellow of
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ins 2001 for "contributions to free-space terahertz optoelectronics". He has been involved in research using
Terahertz radiation, a part of the spectrum between microwaves and infrared, and the traditional bounds of
electronics, and
photonics. Terahertz radiation, or "T-Rays" have many potential applications for 3D scanning, non-destructive testing, and spectroscopy. Dr. Zhang has been active in pulsed THz research since 1988. He edited the seminal text in the emerging field of THz liquid photonics: Terahertz Liquid Photonics, World Scientific (2023). His major Professional Activities include: Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor-in-Chief, Springer Nature Light, Science, & Applications ’20-26; Optica (former OSA) Leadership Nominating Council, ’19-21, Editor-in-Chief of Optics Letters ’14-19, Director-at-Large, OSA ’14-16, Associate Editor of Frontier of Optoelectronics ’13-14, Topical Editor of JOSA B ‘05-11, Associate Editor-in-Chief for Chinese Optics Letters, Chinese Academy of Science Assessor, ‘00-10; Member, CLEO ‘03, CLEO ‘02, CLEO ‘99, ‘00 Program Subcommittee on Ultrafast Optics and Electronics; Chair of Physics Panel, ’99, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow Program; Board of Editorial Committee, ’99, Laser Society of Japan; Co-chair, ’99, Conference on THz Spectroscopy and Application, SPIE; chair, ’97, Ultrafast Optics & Electronics, LEOS Annual Meeting; Guest Editor, ’96, JSTQE on Ultrafast Electronics, Photonics and Optoelectronics; chair, ’95-’98, Committee on Ultrafast Optics & Electronics, IEEE/LEOS; Member of the Board of Governors, ’95, IEEE/LEOS; Member of Physics Panel, ’93-present, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow Program; Co-chair, ’93, Conference on Ultrafast Laser and Technology, SPIE; Guest editor, ’93-present, WuLi (Chinese Physics Journal); Member, ’92-’95, Committee on Ultrafast Optics & Electronics, IEEE/LEOS Dr. Zhang received 29 US patents; authored and co-authored 23 books and book chapters, >350 refereed papers; delivered >700 colloquium, seminars, invited conference presentations, and contributed conference talks. Google Scholar H-index of 94. ORCID: 0000-0002-7187-1829 ==Honors and awards==