Xi-Cheng Zhang

Xi-Cheng Zhang graduated from Peking University, China, in 1982 and received his PhD in physics from Brown University, USA, in 1986. Prior to joining the University of Rochester, he pioneered world-leading research in the field of ultrafast laser-based terahertz technology and optical physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, from 1992 to 2012. At RPI, he was the Eric Jonsson Professor of Science; Acting Head at the Department of Physics, Applied Physics & Astronomy; Professor of Electrical, Computer & System; and Founding Director of the Center for THz Research. He is co-founder of Zomega Terahertz Corp., and today he is Parker Givens Chair of Optics at the University of Rochester, where he has been since 2012.

Dr. Zhang received 29 US patents; authored and co-authored 24 books and book chapters, 330 refereed papers; delivered 500 colloquia, seminars, invited conference presentations, and 200 contributed conference talks.

Dr. Zhang is a Fellow of Optica, AAAS, APS, IEEE, and SPIE. Dr. Zhang's honors and awards include: Australian Academy of Science Selby Fellow (2017); International Society of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves Kenneth F. Button Prize (2014); Optica’s William F. Meggers Award (2012); Moscow University Honorable Professor (2012); IEEE Photonics Society William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award (2011); Rensselaer’s William H. Wiley Award (2009); eight Trustee Celebration of Faculty Achievement Awards; the First Heinrich Hertz Lecturer (Germany); International Commission for Optics Traveling Lecturer (2003); and many others.