Zisheng Zhang

At the intersection of catalysis, material science, and theoretical chemistry

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📍 Main Quad, Stanford

Greetings! I am Zisheng Zhang (張 孜晟), an incoming Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, starting in Fall 2026.

Currently, I am a Stanford Energy Fellow conducting semi-independent postdoctoral research at the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, hosted by Dr. Frank Abild-Pedersen and Prof. Thomas Jaramillo.

As a computational chemist, my research aims to understand chemical complexities in emerging catalytic surfaces, electrochemical interfaces, and functional molecules. I develop, maintain, and leverage a computational arsenal of statistical mechanics, quantum chemistry, machine learning, and agentic AI methods.

Prior to Stanford, I completed my MSc & PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with Prof. Anastassia N. Alexandrova, and held a research internship at Argonne National Laboratory with Dr. Maria Chan. I received undergraduate training in both experiment and theory at South University of Science and Technology of China with Prof. Yongye Liang and Prof. Jun Li,

Trivia: I am a alumnus of the late UCLA-CSST undergraduate fellow program. I did my PhD study remotely from Austin, Texas. I love birding, UrbEx, and ghost towns. I plan to make xkcd-style TOC graphics for all publications I lead in the future, and proposals if possible.

news

May 4, 2026 :evergreen_tree: Zisheng will join Stanford Chemical Engineering as an Assistant Professor this Fall!
Apr 7, 2025 :chair: Zisheng will chair a session and give 2 talks at 2025 MRS Spring Meeting!
Mar 15, 2025 :chair: Zisheng will chair a session and give 1 talk & 1 poster at 2025 APS Meeting!
Mar 6, 2025 :trophy: Zisheng is selected as Early Career Distinguished Presenter for 2025 MRS Spring Meeting!
Dec 10, 2024 :trophy: Zisheng won travel award for 2025 APS GERA Energy Workshop!
Oct 27, 2024 Zisheng will present 1 poster and 6 talks at AIChE!

selected publications

† denotes equal contribution | * denotes corresponding authorship
  1. toc_2025pccp.png
    GOCIA: a grand canonical global optimizer for clusters, interfaces, and adsorbates
    Zisheng Zhang*, Winston Gee, Robert H Lavroff, and Anastassia N Alexandrova*
    Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2025 , 27, 2, 696–706
  2. toc_2024CuHCO.png
    H and CO Co-Induced Cu Adatom Formation in CO2 Electroreduction Conditions
    Zisheng Zhang, Winston Gee, Anastassia N. Alexandrova*, and Philippe Sautet*
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024 , 146, 23, 16119–16127
  3. toc_2024jacs_aamir.jpg
    Platinum Surface Water Orientation Dictates Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Kinetics in Alkaline Media
    Aamir Hassan Shah†, Zisheng Zhang†, Chengzhang Wan, Sibo Wang, Laiyuan Wang, Anastassia N. Alexandrova*, Yu Huang*, and Xiangfeng Duan*
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2024 , 146, 14, 9623–9630
  4. toc_2024accounts.gif
    Modeling Interfacial Dynamics on Single Atom Electrocatalysts: Explicit Solvation and Potential Dependence
    Zisheng Zhang, Jun Li, and Yang-Gang Wang*
    Accounts of Chemical Research, 2024 , 57, 2, 198–207
  5. toc_2023hBN.png
    Off-stoichiometric Restructuring and Sliding Dynamics of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Edges in Conditions of Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane
    Zisheng Zhang, Ive Hermans, and Anastassia N Alexandrova*
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2023 , 145, 31, 17265-17273
  6. toc_2023jacsWYG.gif
    Engineering Single-Atom Electrocatalysts for Enhancing Kinetics of Acidic Volmer Reaction
    Hao Cao, Qilun Wang, Zisheng Zhang, Hui-Min Yan, Hongyan Zhao, Hong Bin Yang, Bin Liu, Jun Li, and Yang-Gang Wang
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2023 , 145, 24, 13038-13047
  7. toc_2023PtNiOH.png
    Amorphous nickel hydroxide shell tailors local chemical environment on platinum surface for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction
    Chengzhang Wan, Zisheng Zhang, Juncai Dong, Mingjie Xu, Heting Pu, Daniel Baumann, Zhaoyang Lin, Sibo Wang, Jin Huang, Aamir Hassan Shah, Xiaoqing Pan, Tiandou Hu, Anastassia N. Alexandrova*, Yu Huang*, and Xiangfeng Duan*
    Nature Materials, 2023 , 22, 1022-1029
  8. toc_2023acie.png
    Hydrogen Evolution on FTO-Supported Ptn Clusters: Ensemble of Hydride States Governs the Size Dependent Reactivity
    Zisheng Zhang†, Tsugunosuke Masubuchi†, Philippe Sautet, Scott L Anderson*, and Anastassia N Alexandrova*
    Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2023 , 135, 20, e202218210
  9. toc_2022natcatal.png
    The role of alkali metal cations and platinum-surface hydroxyl in the alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction
    Aamir Hassan Shah, Zisheng Zhang, Zhihong Huang, Sibo Wang, Guangyan Zhong, Chengzhang Wan, Anastassia N Alexandrova*, Yu Huang*, and Xiangfeng Duan*
    Nature Catalysis, 2022 , 5, 10, 923–933
  10. toc_2022jacs.jpeg
    Hydrogen-Induced Restructuring of a Cu(100) Electrode in Electroreduction Conditions
    Zisheng Zhang, Ziyang Wei, Philippe Sautet*, and Anastassia N. Alexandrova*
    Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2022 , 144, 42, 19284–19293
  11. toc_2022chemsocrev.gif
    Molecular design of redox carriers for electrochemical CO 2 capture and concentration
    Jeffrey M Barlow†, Lauren E Clarke†, Zisheng Zhang†, Daniel Bı́m, Katelyn M Ripley, Alessandra Zito, Fikile R Brushett*, Anastassia N Alexandrova*, and Jenny Y Yang*
    Chemical Society Reviews, 2022 , 51, 8415–8433
  12. toc_2022pnas.png
    Inverse molecular design of alkoxides and phenoxides for aqueous direct air capture of CO2
    Zisheng Zhang, Amanda L Kummeth, Jenny Y Yang*, and Anastassia N Alexandrova*
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022 , 119, 25, e2123496119
  13. toc_2022ncomms.png
    Pseudo-adsorption and long-range redox coupling during oxygen reduction reaction on single atom electrocatalyst
    Jie-Wei Chen†, Zisheng Zhang†, Hui-Min Yan, Guang-Jie Xia, Hao Cao, and Yang-Gang Wang*
    Nature communications, 2022 , 13, 1, 1734
  14. toc_2020natene.png
    Molecular engineering of dispersed nickel phthalocyanines on carbon nanotubes for selective CO2 reduction
    Xiao Zhang, Yang Wang, Meng Gu, Maoyu Wang, Zisheng Zhang, Weiying Pan, Zhan Jiang, Hongzhi Zheng, Marcos Lucero, Hailiang Wang, George E Sterbinsky, Qing, Yang-Gang Wang*, Zhengxing Feng*, Hongjie Dai, and Yongye Liang*
    Nature Energy, 2020 , 5, 9, 684–692
  15. toc_2020accounts.jpeg
    Ensembles of metastable states govern heterogeneous catalysis on dynamic interfaces
    Zisheng Zhang, Borna Zandkarimi, and Anastassia N Alexandrova*
    Accounts of chemical research, 2020 , 53, 2, 447–458
  16. toc_2020acie.jpg
    Why boron nitride is such a selective catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane
    Juan M Venegas†, Zisheng Zhang†, Theodore O Agbi, William P McDermott, Anastassia Alexandrova*, and Ive Hermans*
    Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2020 , 59, 38, 16527–16535