| Stanford University, Ph.D. | |
| Chemistry |
Prof. Zhang received his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1992 from Stanford University under the guidance of Professor James P. Collman. In 1994, he joined the department of chemistry at The Penn State University as an Assistant Professor of chemistry. he was promoted to an Associate Professor of chemistry in 1999 and Full Professor in 2003. In 2007, he took a leading organic professor position in Rutgers, the New Jersey State University so that he can significantly enhance his interactions with pharmaceutical companies ad his effort to build Chiral Quest. His research interests include the development of chiral phosphine ligands for asymmetric catalysis, the investigation of asymmetric hydrogenation and carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions, the synthesis of biologically active compounds, and the discovery of new synthetic methods. Professor Zhang is the first person from mainland China, who won the prestigious ACS Cope Scholar Award in 2002 for his invention of the toolbox of chiral ligands for his development of homogeneous catalysts that make it practical to synthesize many chiral molecules, especially those having biological significance. Professor Zhang has published over 140 papers and filed over 30 patents and is a leading chemist in the world on asymmetric hydrogenation reaction.
