|
Jin Zhang elected 2007 AAAS Fellow
Monday, October 29, 2007
Written by Hugh Powell, Tim Stephens
Jin Zhang, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, has been honored as a 2007 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Sandra Faber, UCSC professor and chair of astronomy and astrophysics, also received the honor. The council of the 120,000-member society voted this year to award fellowships to 471 scientists and engineers. Each will receive a certificate and commemorative pin during the 2008 AAAS meeting in Boston. AAAS recognized Zhang for his "distinguished contributions to the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly ultrafast studies of nanomaterials and their optical applications in energy conversion and biomedical detection." Zhang's research capitalizes on the peculiar qualities of semiconductors, metal oxides, and metals and investigates how they may be useful as nanomaterials, tiny structures on the scale of atoms. Zhang studies these small structures—illuminated with laser flashes shorter than a billionth of a second—to explore ways to harness light energy for uses such as generating hydrogen fuel from water. His group also studies the use of nanomaterials for detecting cancer biomarkers. He cowrote a textbook, published in 2002, about self-assembly of materials at the nanoscale. Zhang earned his B.Sc. at Fudan University, Shanghai, and his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1989. He joined the UCSC faculty in 1992. AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society, was founded in 1848 and began its tradition of electing AAAS fellows in 1874. The society's peer-reviewed magazine, Science, is the world's highest-circulation scientific journal, with an estimated total readership of one million. The nonprofit organization is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, and more.
|
