Jessica Zhang is the George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd
Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie
Mellon University (CMU) with a courtesy appointment in Department of Biomedical Engineering. She
received her B.Eng. in Automotive Engineering and M.Eng. in Engineering Mechanics
from Tsinghua University, China; and M.Eng. in Aerospace
Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and Ph.D. in Computational Engineering and Sciences from
Institute for Computational
Engineering and Sciences (ICES, now Oden Institute), The University of Texas at Austin.
After staying two years in ICES as a postdoctoral fellow, she joined CMU
in 2007 as an assistant professor, and then was
promoted to an associate professor in 2012 and a full professor in 2016.
Zhang's research interests include computational geometry, isogeometric analysis,
finite element method, data-driven modeling, image processing, mesh generation,
and their applications in computational biomedicine, materials science and
engineering. Professor Zhang's group develops novel algorithms on
biomodeling at molecular, cellular, tissue and organ scales, and explores applications
in various application fields. She has co-authored over 200 publications
in peer-reviewed international journals and conference proceedings, and
received the Best Paper Award 1st Place in Solid and Physical
Modeling Conference 2018, Autodesk Best Paper Award 1st Place in SIAM
Conference on Solid and Physical Modeling 2015, the Best Paper Award in CompIMAGE'16
conference, Top Cited Article in International Journal for Numerical Methods in
Engineering during 2021-2022, one of the 5 Most Highly Cited Papers Published in
Computer-Aided Design during 2014-2016, and one of 10 Most Cited Articles Published in
Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering during 2005-2008. She published a
book entitled "Geometric Modeling and Mesh Generation from Scanned Images" with
CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group in 2016.
Zhang is the recipient of Simons Visiting Professorship from Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut
Oberwolfach of Germany, US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers,
NSF CAREER Award, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award,
and US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM)
Gallagher Young Investigator Award. At CMU, she received David P. Casasent Outstanding
Research Award, George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd
Professorship, Clarence H. Adamson Career
Faculty Fellow in Mechanical Engineering, Donald L. & Rhonda Struminger Faculty Fellow,
and George Tallman Ladd Research Award. She is a
Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society for Industrial
and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), International Academy of Medical and Biological
Engineers (IAMBE), American Institute for Medical and Biological
Engineering (AIMBE), USACM, Solid Modeling Association (SMA), and Executive Leadership in
Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) at Drexel.
Zhang has been playing active leadership roles in her research societies.
At USACM, she is the current Secretary/Treasurer and will rotate to Vice
President in 2024 and President in 2026, was a Member-at-Large of the
Executive Council. She served on the General Council of International
Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM), and was recently elected to
the Vice Chair of ASME Applied Mechanics Division (AMD) Committee on Computing
in Applied Mechanics (CONCAM, rotate to the Chair in 2025). As a woman faculty, Zhang
has made significant efforts on promoting diversity and young researchers
in her research societies. In particular, she is the founding chair of USACM
Female Researchers Group. In addition, she chaired the Executive Committee of
SMA where she launched SMA Young Investigator Award and SMA Fellow to recognize
outstanding junior and mid-career researchers in solid modeling. At AIMBE College
of Fellows, she was elected to the Chair-Elect (rotate to the
Chair in 2024) and serve on its Board of Directors. She is currently the
Program Director of SIAM Activity Group on Geometric Design (SIAG/GD) and chaired
the SIAG/GD Early Career Prize Committee. Zhang also serves on the editorial board
of many leading journals including Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering,
Computer-Aided Design and Computer Aided Geometric Design. She is the current
Editor-in-Chief of Engineering with Computers.