Employment History
- Assistant Professor, University of Rochester (07/2025 expected)
- Sagan Fellow, University of California Santa Cruz (10/2022 - present)
Hosts: Prof. Jonathan J. Fortney
- Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Texas at Austin (09/2021 - 09/2022)
Hosts: Prof. Brendan P. Bowler and Prof. Caroline V. Morley
- Research Assistant, University of Hawaii (2016 - 2021)
Advisor: Prof. Michael C. Liu
- Teaching Assistant, University of Hawaii (2015 - 2016)
Instructors: Dr. Geoff Mathews and Prof. Robert Joseph
- REU Intern, Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Summer 2014)
Advisors: Prof. Christine Jones and Prof. Marie Machacek
Education
- Ph.D in Astronomy, University of Hawaii (08/2021)
Title: Discovery and Characterization of Giant Planets and Brown Dwarfs on Wide Orbits
Advisor: Prof. Michael C. Liu
- M.S. in Astronomy, University of Hawaii (2017)
- B.S. in Astronomy, Nanjing University, China (2015)
Research Interest
- Formation of gas-giant planets and brown dwarfs
- Elemental abundances of exoplanets and their host stars
- Large-scale survey
- Orbital architecture of planetary systems
Honors and Awards
- 2023 OWL Mini Grant ($2,400), Heising-Simons Foundation & UC Santa Cruz
- 2022 NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) Sagan Fellowship [media]
- 2022 Rodger Doxsey Travel Prize, 239th American Astronomical Society Meeting
Travel prize for giving an oral presentation of PhD dissertation at the 239th AAS (10 recipients / 116 entries). [media]
- 2020 OVCR Student Excellence in Research Award, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Awarded to 3 students per year across all departments of University of Hawaii. [media]
- 2019 Exoplanet Summer Program Mini Grant, Heising-Simons Foundation & University of California Santa Cruz
Travel grant of $2.8K for attending international conferences.
- 2017 Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award, 229th American Astronomical Society Meeting
Top poster presentation at the 229th AAS Meeting (6 awarded in total) [media]
- 2017 Friends of the IfA Project Award, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Top research project among 2nd-year graduate students in Institute for Astronomy.
- 2016 Friends of the IfA Project Award, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Top research project among 1st-year graduate students in Institute for Astronomy.
- 2015 IfA Director’s Research Award, Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Professional Service
- Lamat REU Mentor at UC Santa Cruz (Summer 2023)
- Organizer of the Planetary Lunch Seminar (PLUNCH) at UC Santa Cruz (2022 - present)
- NASA Grant Panel Reviewer
- Hubble Space Telescope Proposal Reviewer
- Referee for AJ, ApJ, and A&A (2020 - present)
- Reviewer for the NASA Hubble Fellowship Application Feedback Program (2022 - present)
- Organizer of the Weekly Club of Research Highlights (ExoUpdate) at UT Austin (2022)
- TAURUS REU Mentor at UT Austin (Summer 2022)
- Hands-On Session Facilitator of the Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshop (2021)
- Judge of the 237th AAS Chambliss Poster Competition (2021)
- Time Allocation Committee of University of Hawaii (2019 - 2020)
- Student Representative of the IfA Mentoring in Lower Years (IfAMiLY) program (2018)
- Graduate Student Organization Representative for Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii (2015 - 2016)
Observing Experience
Publications (54)
First-author (13)
- Zhang, Z., Mukherjee, S., Liu, M. C., et al. “Disequilibrium Chemistry, Diabatic Thermal Structure, and Clouds in the Atmosphere of COCONUTS-2b” 2024, AJ, in press
- Zhang, Z., “Initial Entropy and Potential Delayed Formation of the Directly Imaged Exoplanet AF Lep b” 2024, RNAAS, 8, 114
- Zhang, Z., Molliere, P., Hawkins, K., et al. “ELemental abundances of Planets and brown dwarfs Imaged around Stars (ELPIS): I. Potential Metal Enrichment of the Exoplanet AF Lep b and a Novel Retrieval Approach for Cloudy Self-luminous Atmospheres” 2023c, AJ, 166, 198
- Zhang, Z., Morley, C. V., Gully-Santiago, M., et al. “Giant Tidal Tails of Helium Escaping the hot Jupiter HAT-P-32 b” 2023b, Science Advances, Vol 9, Issue 23
- Zhang, Z., Bowler, B. P., Dupuy, T. J., et al. "The McDonald Accelerating Stars Surveys (MASS): Architecture of the Ancient Five-Planet Host System Kepler-444." 2022b, AJ, in press
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Morley, C. V., Magnier, E. A., Tucker, M. A., Do, A. Shappee, B. J. "COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS). III. An Unusually Red L Dwarf around a Young M Dwarf." 2022a, ApJ, 935, 15
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Claytor, Z. R., Best, W. M. J., Dupuy, T. J., Siverd, R. J. "The Second Discovery from the COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS) Program: A Cold Wide-Orbit Exoplanet around a Young Field M Dwarf at 10.9 pc." 2021d, ApJL, 916, 11
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Marley, M. S., Line, M. R., & Best, W. M. J. "Uniform Forward-Modeling Analysis of Ultracool Dwarfs. II. Atmospheric Properties of 55 Late-T Dwarfs." 2021c, ApJ, 921 95
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Marley, M. S., Line, M. R., & Best, W. M. J. "Uniform Forward-Modeling Analysis of Ultracool Dwarfs. I. Methodology and Benchmarking." 2021b, ApJ, 916, 53
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Best, W. M. J., Dupuy, T. J., & Siverd, R. J., "The Hawaii Infrared Parallax Program. V. New T-Dwarf Members and Candidate Members of Nearby Young Moving Groups." 2021a, ApJ, 911, 7
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Hermes, J. J., Magnier, E. A., Marley, M. S., et al. "COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS). I. A High-Gravity T4 Benchmark around an Old White Dwarf and A Re-Examination of the Surface-Gravity Dependence of the L/T Transition." 2020, ApJ, 891, 171
- Zhang, Z., Liu, M. C., Best, W. M. J., Magnier, E. A., et al. "The Pan-STARRS1 Proper-motion Survey for Young Brown Dwarfs in Nearby Star-forming Regions. I. Taurus Discoveries and a Reddening-free Classification Method for Ultracool Dwarfs." 2018, ApJ, 858, 41
- Zhang, Z., Shi, Y., Rieke, G. H., et al. "Distributions of Quasar Hosts on the Galaxy Main Sequence Plane." 2016, ApJL, 819, 27
Second/Third-author (6)
- Zhang, R., Liu, M. C., Zhang, Z., et al. "“A Possible Correlation between Metallicity and Near-IR Color for Late-M and L Dwarfs”" 2023, AAS Journals, under review
- Phillips, M. W., Liu, M. C., Zhang, Z., et al. "The Carbon-to-Oxygen Ratio in Cool Brown Dwarfs and Giant Exoplanets. I. Benchmark T dwarfs GJ 570D and Ross 458C" 2023, AAS Journals, under review
- Bowler, B. P., Tran, Q., Zhang, Z., et al. "Rotation Periods, Inclinations, and Obliquities of Cool Stars Hosting Directly Imaged Substellar Companions: Spin-Orbit Misalignments are Ubiquitous" 2023, AJ, 165, 164 [ADS]
- Hurt, S. A., Liu, M. C., Zhang, Z., et al. “Uniform Forward-Modeling Analysis of Ultracool Dwarfs. III. Late-M and L Dwarfs in Young Moving Groups, the Pleiades, and the Hyades” 2023, AAS Journals, under review
- Sepulveda, A. G., Huber, D., Zhang, Z., et al. "The Directly Imaged Exoplanet Host Star 51 Eridani is a Gamma Doradus Pulsator" 2022, ApJL, 938, 49 [ADS]
- Liu, M. C., Magnier, E. A., Zhang, Z., et al. "On The Unusual Variability of 2MASS J06195260$-$2903592: A Long-Lived Disk around a Young Ultracool Dwarf." 2022, AJ, 164, 165 [ADS]
Co-author (35)
- Hejazi, N., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Chemical Links between a Young M-type T Tauri Star and its Substellar Companion: Spectral Analysis and C/O Measurement of DH Tau A" 2024, ApJ, in press
- Nail, F., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Cold day-side winds shape large leading streams in evaporating exoplanet atmospheres" 2024, A\&A, under review
- Balmer, W. O., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "VLTI/GRAVITY Observations of AF Lep b: Preference for Circular Orbits, Cloudy Atmospheres, and a Moderately Enhanced Metallicity" 2024, AJ, in press [ADS]
- Franson, K., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "JWST/NIRCam 4--5~$\mu$m Imaging of the Giant Planet AF Lep b" 2024, ApJ Letters, 974, 11 [ADS]
- Sanghi, A., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Ultracool Dwarf Absolute Magnitude Versus Spectral Type Relations for Euclid and Roman Near-infrared Filters" 2024, RNAAS, 8, 137 [ADS]
- Sutlieff, B. J., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Prioritizing High-Precision Photometric Monitoring of Exoplanet and Brown Dwarf Companions with JWST -- Strategic Exoplanet Initiatives with HST and JWST White Paper" 2024, White Paper, Strategic Exoplanet Initiatives with HST and JWST [ADS]
- Petrus, S., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The JWSTEarly Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems IV: Do Self-Consistent Atmospheric Models Represent JWST Spectra? A Showcase With VHS 1256 b" 2023, A&A, under review [ADS]
- Sepulveda, A. G., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The Hybrid Debris Disk Host Star HD 21997 is a High-Frequency Delta Scuti Pulsator" 2024, RNAAS, 8, 98 [ADS]
- Biddle, L. I., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Deep Pa beta Imaging of the Candidate Accreting Protoplanet AB Aur b" 2024, AJ, 167, 172 [ADS]
- Sallum, S., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The JWSTEarly Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems IV: NIRISS Aperture Masking Interferometry Performance and Lessons Learned" 2024, ApJ, 963, 2 [ADS]
- Gully-Santiago, M., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "A Large and Variable Leading Tail of Helium in a Hot Saturn Undergoing Runaway Inflation" 2023, AJ, under review [ADS]
- Liu, P., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "A Near-infrared Variability Survey of Young Planetary-mass Objects" 2023, MNRAS, 527, 6624
- Sepulveda, A. G., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "HIP 65426 is a High-Frequency Delta Scuti Pulsator in Plausible Spin-Orbit Alignment with its Directly Imaged Exoplanet" 2024, AJ, 168, 13
- Sanghi, A., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Ultracool Dwarf Absolute Magnitude versus Spectral Type Relations for JWST NIRCam Filters" Zenodo, 10.5281 [Zenodo]
- Sanghi, A., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The Hawaii Infrared Parallax Program. VI. The Fundamental Properties of 1000+ Ultracool Dwarfs and Planetary-Mass Objects using Optical to Mid-infrared Spectral Energy Distributions" 2023, ApJ, 959, 63 [ADS]
- Sepulveda, A. G., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "20 s Cadence TESS Photometry of HR 8799" 2023, RNAAS, 7, 2 [ADS]
- Ray, S., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The JWSTEarly Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems III: Aperture Masking Interferometric Observations of the star HIP 65426 at 3.8 um" 2023, ApJL, in press [ADS]
- Damian, B., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "A novel survey for young substellar objects with the W-band filter VI: Spectroscopic census of sub-stellar members and the IMF of σ Orionis cluster" 2023, ApJ, 951, 139 [ADS]
- Franson, K., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "Astrometric Accelerations as Dynamical Beacons: Discovery and Characterization of HIP 21152 B, the First T-Dwarf Companion in the Hyades", 2023, AJ 165, 39 [ADS]
- Dubber, S., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "A Novel Survey for Young Substellar Objects with the W-band Filter. IV. Detection and characterisation of low-mass brown dwarfs in Serpens Core", 2023, MNRAS, 520, 3383 [ADS]
- Miles, B. E., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems II: A 1 to 20 Micron Spectrum of the Planetary-Mass Companion VHS 1256-1257 b" 2022, ApJL, 946, 6 [ADS]
- Carter, A. L., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.), "The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems I: High Contrast Imaging of the Exoplanet HIP 65426 b from 2-16μm" 2022, AAS Journals, under review [ADS]
- Lalchand, B., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "A Novel Survey for Young Substellar Objects with the W band Filter.V. IC 348 and Barnard 5 in the Perseus Cloud." 2022, ApJ, 164, 125 [ADS]
- Zalesky, J., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "A Uniform Retrieval Analysis of Ultra-cool Dwarfs. IV. A Statistical Census from 50 Late-T Dwarfs." 2022, ApJ, 936, 44 [ADS]
- Gaidos, E., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "Zodiacal exoplanets in time (ZEIT) XII: a directly imaged planetary-mass companion to a young Taurus M dwarf star." 2021, MNRAS, 512, 583 [ADS]
- Dubber, S., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "A Novel Survey for Young Substellar Objects with the W-band filter III: Searching for very low mass brown dwarfs in Serpens South and Serpens Core." 2021, MNRAS, 505, 4215 [ADS]
- Salama, M., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "Large Adaptive Optics Survey for Substellar Objects (LASSO) Around Young, Nearby, Low-mass Stars with Robo-AO." 2021, ApJ, in press [ADS]
- Best, W. M. J., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "The UltracoolSheet: Photometry, Astrometry, Spectroscopy, and Multiplicity for 3000+ Ultracool Dwarfs and Imaged Exoplanets" 2020, Zenodo, 10.5281/zenodo.4169085 [UltracoolSheet]
- Fontanive, C., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "A Wide Planetary-Mass Companion to a Young Low-mass Brown Dwarf in Ophiuchus." 2020, ApJL, in press [ADS]
- Vedantham, H. K., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "Direct radio discovery of a cold brown dwarf." 2020, ApJL, 903, 33 [ADS] [astrobites]
- Jose, J., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "A Novel Survey for Young Substellar Objects with the W-band Filter. II. The Coolest and Lowest Mass Members of the Serpens-South Star-forming Region." 2020, ApJ, 892, 122 [ADS]
- Dupuy, T., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "WISE J072003.20-084651.2B is a Massive T Dwarf." 2019, ApJ, 158, 174 [ADS]
- Dye, S., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "The UKIRT Hemisphere Survey: definition and J-band data release." 2018, MNRAS, 473, 5113 [ADS]
- Best, W. M. J., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "Photometry and Proper Motions of M, L, and T Dwarfs from the Pan-STARRS1 3π Survey." 2018, ApJ, 234, 1 [ADS]
- Best, W. M. J., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "A Search for L/T Transition Dwarfs with Pan-STARRS1 and WISE. III. Young L Dwarf Discoveries and Proper Motion Catalogs in Taurus and Scorpius-Centaurus." 2017, ApJ, 837, 95 [ADS]
Non-Refereed Publications (2)
Co-author (2)
- Sepulveda, Aldo G., Huber, D., Li, G., (incl. Zhang, Z.), et al. “20 s Cadence TESS
Photometry of HR 8799”, 2023, RNAAS, 7, 2 [ADS]
- Best, W., et al. (incl. Zhang, Z.) "The UltracoolSheet: Photometry, Astrometry, Spectroscopy, and Multiplicity for 3000+ Ultracool Dwarfs and Imaged Exoplanets" 2020, Zenodo [link]
Students Advised
- Maria Cuevas (Summer 2023), undergraduate students at UC Santa Cruz (ASTR9A class)
Luminosity and Photometry of Directly Imaged Exoplanets
- Stuti Garg, Tatum Lexvold, Ben McBride, Simon Seo (Spring 2023; ASTR9A), undergraduate students at UC Santa Cruz
Photometric and kinematic properties of nearby young moving groups
- Emily Mader (Fall 2022 - present), undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz
Atmospheric properties of benchmark brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects
- Fahham Kurji (Spring 2023 - present), undergraduate student at UC Santa Cruz
Atmospheric properties of free-floating planets
- Malik Bossett (Summer 2022), undergraduate at Northern Arizona University
Cloud properties of benchmark brown dwarfs and giant planets (TAURUS Program at UT Austin)
- Neel Nagarajan (Spring 2022), undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin
Helium outflows from young hot Jupiters
- Spencer Hurt (Summer 2021), undergraduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder
Atmospheric modeling of young L dwarfs (REU Program at University of Hawaii)
- Bryan Yamashiro (2019-2021), graduate student at University of Hawaii
Peer Mentoring Program at University of Hawaii
- Sage Constantinou (2020-2021), graduate student at University of Hawaii
Peer Mentoring Program at University of Hawaii
Outreach
- Volunteer at the State Capitol on Children & Youth Day for the astronomy information booth, solar view, and the scale solar system (Oct 2019)
- Volunteer stronomy outreach activities at the University of Hawaii campus center courtyard (Oct 2019)
- Volunteer at Hawaii Astronomy Forum & Fair on campus of the University of Hawaii (Sept 2019)
- Star Lab at the Hokulani Elementary School (May 2019)
- Volunteer at the annual open house event of Institute for Astronomy (2017, 2018)