Associate Professor
College of Materials Science and Engineering
State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials
Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China
86-21-6779-2954(O) 86-21-6779-2855(Fax)
Prof Zhang has 14 years' experience as a researcher in materials science, specialising in biomimetic materials (silkworm silk and spider silk), environmentally friendly polymer materials (cellulose fibers), and microfluidics.
He received his BS degree in Polymer Material and Engineering from Hubei University of Technology, China, in 1998, and his PhD degree in Material Science, specializing in cellulose membrane, from Donghua University, China, in 2002. In the same year, he joined Donghua University as a research assistant. He had been a postdoctoral fellow of Kawamura Institute of Chemical Research, Japan from 2004 to 2007. Dr. Zhang became an associate professor in 2007. In 2010, he was appointed a Visiting Professor of Life Sciences in Akita University, Japan.
During the last 5 years, Prof Zhang has directed more than 10 competitive funds for research, with funding coming from National Natural Science Foundation of China, State Education Ministry, Shanghai Municipal Government, and universities. Prof Zhang research has been awarded the Second prize of China National Textile Apparel Council Scientific Technology Award (2007). The course of Polymer Chemistry led by Prof Zhang has been approved by State Education Ministry of China as a state-level fine quality course (2007).
By mimicking the spinning process of silkworms, Prof Zhang’s group successfully spun artificial silks tougher than natural silkworm silk from regenerated silk fibroin(RSF) aqueous solutions in air by using a dry spinning process. Unlike the traditional wet spinning process, the dry spinning process is environmentally friendly and low-cost. Prof Zhang’s group also electrospun enhanced RSF scaffolds using entirely aqueous processing methods. The scaffolds can be applied in tissue engineering, such as urethral reconstruction, and wound dressing.
To date, he has successfully supervised 4 Ph.D students as an associate Ph.D supervisor and 3 master students as a graduate supervisor. He is currently a supervisor of 8 master students and an associate supervisor of another three Ph.D students. He has published 63 peer-reviewed papers, 2 book chapters and 50 conference abstracts/ papers before September 2012. He applied 13 patents in China and 4 patents in Japan, in which 6 patents have been authorized.