1.         Nanoductility and mechanical behavior (deformation and fracture) of amorphous solids

2.         Hidden topological/chemical order in disordered systems such as liquids, oxide/metallic glasses, high entropy alloys, and granular materials

3.         Physical and chemical properties of the surface of amorphous materials

2020.11– Present   Xi'an Jiaotong University, China   Assistant Professor

2020.7 – 2020.10   Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China  Visiting Scientist    

2016.10 – 2022.5  University of Montepllier, France   Ph.D.

2013.9 – 2016.6  College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, China   M.E.

2009.9 – 2013.7  College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, China   B.E.

2019  Poster contest winner by the American Ceramic Society

2016  Doctoral fellowship by the China Scholarship Council

Full publications list and Citation

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xlcoVIUAAAAJ&hl=en

Selected Publications

1. Zhen Zhang, Simona Ispas, and Walter Kob. Origin of the non-linear elastic behavior of silicate glasses. Acta Materialia, 231, 117855 (2022).

2. Zhen Zhang, Simona Ispas, and Walter Kob. Roughness and scaling properties of oxide glass surfaces at the nanoscale. Physical Review Letters. 126 (6), 066101 (2021).

3. Houfei Yuan , Zhen Zhang , Walter Kob, and Yujie Wang. Connecting packing efficiency of binary hard sphere systems to their intermediate range structure. Physical Review Letters, 126, 066101 (2021).

4. Zhen Zhang, Walter Kob, and Simona Ispas. First-principles study of the surface of silica and sodium silicate glasses. Physical Review B, 103(18), 184201 (2021).

5. Zhen Zhang and Walter Kob. Revealing the three-dimensional structure of liquids using four-point correlation functions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 14032 (2020).