Zisheng Zhang

Bio: Zisheng Zhang, a native of Wuhan, obtained his BSc ('19) in Chemistry at South University of Science and Technology of China, advised by Jun Li. He went to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a UCLA-CSST fellow ('18) and stayed there for graduate studies, obtaining a MSc ('21) and a PhD ('24) in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, advised by Prof. Anastassia N. Alexandrova. His dissertation work advances the modeling of restructuring catalyst surface by a combination of statistical models and global optimization algorithms, for which he has received student awards from both COMP and CATL divisions of ACS. His research interests include realistic modeling of catalysts and materials, with a focus on complexities at the interface, and inverse design of functional molecules.

Postdoctoral research project: Realistic Modeling and Computational Design of Mixed Boride Electrocatalysts.  Electrocatalysis is the key technology in electrochemical energy conversion and storage, as well as various environmental and green chemistry applications. Developing high-performance noble-metal-free electrocatalysts is especially desired for sustainability and scalability. Boride, compound of boron and metal element(s), is emerging as a family of promising electrocatalysts with earth-abundant composition and electrochemical activity. Their reactivities originate in the unique property of B, which forms B-B and metal-B motifs of diverse geometric and electronic structures. At Stanford, Zisheng will develop and apply computational models to understand and design mixed boride electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution, nitrogen reduction, and other electro-reduction reactions. His focus will be on identifying and populating the metastable active species, engineering the electrochemical interface, and developing multi-objective global optimization to break activity-selectivity-stability trade-offs.

Research focus:  Energy Conversion & Storage - Electrocatalysis

Advisors:  Frank Abild-Pedersen - SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory | Thomas Jaramillo - Chemical Engineering