Zisheng Zhang
At the intersection of catalysis, material science, and theoretical chemistry
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 | |
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| Apr 7, 2025 | |
| Mar 15, 2025 | |
| Mar 6, 2025 | |
| Dec 10, 2024 | |
| Oct 27, 2024 | Zisheng will present 1 poster and 6 talks at AIChE! |
selected publications
† denotes equal contribution | * denotes corresponding authorship-
GOCIA: a grand canonical global optimizer for clusters, interfaces, and adsorbatesPhysical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2025 , 27, 2, 696–706 -
H and CO Co-Induced Cu Adatom Formation in CO2 Electroreduction ConditionsJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2024 , 146, 23, 16119–16127 -
Platinum Surface Water Orientation Dictates Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Kinetics in Alkaline MediaJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2024 , 146, 14, 9623–9630 -
Modeling Interfacial Dynamics on Single Atom Electrocatalysts: Explicit Solvation and Potential DependenceAccounts of Chemical Research, 2024 , 57, 2, 198–207 -
Off-stoichiometric Restructuring and Sliding Dynamics of Hexagonal Boron Nitride Edges in Conditions of Oxidative Dehydrogenation of PropaneJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2023 , 145, 31, 17265-17273 -
Engineering Single-Atom Electrocatalysts for Enhancing Kinetics of Acidic Volmer ReactionJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2023 , 145, 24, 13038-13047 -
Amorphous nickel hydroxide shell tailors local chemical environment on platinum surface for alkaline hydrogen evolution reactionNature Materials, 2023 , 22, 1022-1029 -
Hydrogen Evolution on FTO-Supported Ptn Clusters: Ensemble of Hydride States Governs the Size Dependent ReactivityAngewandte Chemie International Edition, 2023 , 135, 20, e202218210 -
The role of alkali metal cations and platinum-surface hydroxyl in the alkaline hydrogen evolution reactionNature Catalysis, 2022 , 5, 10, 923–933 -
Hydrogen-Induced Restructuring of a Cu(100) Electrode in Electroreduction ConditionsJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2022 , 144, 42, 19284–19293 -
Molecular design of redox carriers for electrochemical CO 2 capture and concentrationChemical Society Reviews, 2022 , 51, 8415–8433 -
Inverse molecular design of alkoxides and phenoxides for aqueous direct air capture of CO2Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022 , 119, 25, e2123496119 -
Pseudo-adsorption and long-range redox coupling during oxygen reduction reaction on single atom electrocatalystNature communications, 2022 , 13, 1, 1734 -
Molecular engineering of dispersed nickel phthalocyanines on carbon nanotubes for selective CO2 reductionNature Energy, 2020 , 5, 9, 684–692 -
Ensembles of metastable states govern heterogeneous catalysis on dynamic interfacesAccounts of chemical research, 2020 , 53, 2, 447–458 -
Why boron nitride is such a selective catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of propaneAngewandte Chemie International Edition, 2020 , 59, 38, 16527–16535