Zhen ZHANG

Study

中文丨 SCUT

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Prof. Zhen Zhang received his B.S. degree from Lanzhou University (2013) and Ph.D. degree from the University of New Mexico (2018). After that, he started his postdoctoral training at University of Chicago, Oak Ridge National Lab, and Colorado State University, respectively. In 2024, Dr. Zhang took his professorship at School of Emergent Soft Matter, South China University of Technology. During recent years, Prof. Zhang published more than 30 papers in high-level journals, such as Science, JACS, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Matter, and so on.

Prof. Zhang’s research is mainly focused on environmentally friendly/sustainable polymeric materials, including the design of monomer/catalyst, control of the polymerization process, and manipulation of the chain configuration/topology, aiming for advanced materials with special applications.

2024
Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad

Zhang, Z. #; Quinn, E. #; Kenny, J.; Grigoropoulos, A.; DesVeaux, J.; Chen, T.; Zhou, L.; Xu, T. *; Beckham, G.* and Chen, E.* “Stereomicrostructure-regulated biodegradable adhesives” Science2025, 387, 297–303.
Zhang, Z.; Gowda, R. and Chen, E.* “Chemosynthetic P4HB: A Ten-Year Journey from a “Non-Polymerizable” Monomer to a High-Performance Biomaterial” Acc. Mater. Res.2024, 5, 1340−1352.
Zhang, Z. #; Quinn, E. #; Olmedo-Martínez, J.; Caputo, M.; Franklin, K.; Müller, A.* and Chen, E.* “Toughening Brittle Bio-P3HB with Synthetic P3HB of Engineered Stereomicrostructures” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202311264.
Zhou, L.#; Zhang, Z. #; Shi, C.; Scoti, M.; Barange, D.; Gowda, R. and Chen, E.* “Chemically circular, mechanically tough and melt-processable polyhydroxyalkanoates” Science2023, 380, 64–69.
Zhang, Z.; Shi, C.; Scoti, M.; Tang, X. and Chen, E.* “Alternating Isotactic Polyhydroxyalkanoates via Site- and Stereo-selective Polymerization” J. Am. Chem. Soc.2022, 144, 43, 20016–20024.
Zhang, Z.; Luo, J.; Zhao, S.; Ge, S.; Carrillo, J.; Keum, J.; Do, C., Cheng, S.; Wang, Y.; Sokolov, A. and Cao, P.* “Surpassing the stiffness-extensibility trade-off of elastomers via mastering the hydrogen-bonding clusters” Matter2022, 5, 237–252.

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