CV

Professional Appointments

Associate Project Scientist, UCLA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Jul. 2024 – Present

Assistant Project Scientist, UCLA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Feb. 2022 – Jun. 2024

Postdoctoral Researcher, UCLA
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering | Feb. 2017 – Feb. 2022

Summary: My research accelerates the realization of plasma-based energy-frontier colliders and compact coherent light sources by resolving key physics bottlenecks through an integration of high-impact experiments, large-scale simulations, and AI/ML-driven modeling. I serve as Principal Investigator on peer-reviewed experiments at SLAC’s FACET-II and Brookhaven’s Accelerator Test Facility, and Co-Principal Investigator on DOE-funded research programs.

Research Focus: I pioneered femtosecond relativistic electron probing (FREP) for visualizing ultrafast plasma phenomena, capturing the first-ever direct images of plasma wakefields. Currently, I lead experiments demonstrating the generation of >20 GeV electron bunches with ultrahigh brightness, establishing viable pathways for plasma-driven colliders and X-ray free-electron lasers. I also developed physics-informed machine learning techniques—’virtual diagnostics’—to reconstruct inaccessible beam properties.

Computing: Leading large-scale Particle-in-Cell simulations on NERSC platforms (Perlmutter, Cori) to design experiments, interpret beam-plasma interactions, and validate theoretical models.

Community: Youth Editorial Board Member of Ultrafast Science (2022–2025); Program Committee Member for Laser and Plasma Accelerator Workshop (2023, 2025), APS-DPP (2026); Active reviewer for Physical Review Letters, PNAS, and other high-profile journals. Mentoring graduate students in experimental plasma physics and advanced diagnostics.

Education

Ph.D., Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, China, Oct. 2016
Thesis: Probing wakefield structures in plasma-based accelerators using femtosecond relativistic electron bunches
John Dawson Thesis Prize 2017

B.S., Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, China, Jun. 2010

Awards and Honors

Outstanding Dissertation Award, International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers (2019)

Outstanding Reviewer Award, Institute of Physics (2018, 2019)

CAI Shidong Award for Plasma Physics (2018)

John Dawson Thesis Prize (2017)

Selected Invited Presentations

Dec 2024
Plenary Talk, “Latest Results on PWFA Experiments from FACET-II,” 21st Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop, Annapolis, MD

Jun 2024
Invited Talk, “High-efficiency wake excitation in meter-scale beam-ionized hydrogen plasmas at FACET-II,” 51st IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS), Beijing, China

Jan 2025
Invited Seminar, “Advancing Plasma-based Accelerators: From High-Brightness Beams to New Frontiers,” Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University

Nov 2024
Invited Seminar, “Latest Results on PWFA experiments at FACET-II,” Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Jun 2024
Invited Seminar, “Advancing accelerator and plasma physics: from wakefield acceleration to kinetic instabilities,” Department of Physics, University of Maryland

Oct 2023
Invited Seminar, “Frontier Research in Advanced Accelerator-Driven Plasma Physics,” Department of Plasma Physics and Fusion Engineering, USTC

Oct 2021
Invited Talk, “Probing Weibel Instability in Laboratory Plasmas,” 63rd APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA

Jul 2016
Plenary Talk, “Femtosecond Probing of Plasma Wakefields,” 17th Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop, National Harbor, MD

Selected Publications

Authored 50 peer-reviewed articles, including 10 in Physical Review Letters and publications in PNAS, Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, and Science Advances. Research has garnered over 1400 citations (h-index: 21).

C. Zhang, et al., “Plasma-Wakefield Accelerator Simultaneously Boosts Electron Beam Energy and Brightness,” Accepted in principle by Nature Communications (2025).

C. Zhang, et al., “Correlations between X-rays, visible light and drive-beam energy loss observed in plasma wakefield acceleration experiments at FACET-II,” Journal of Plasma Physics 90, 965900401 (2024).

C. Zhang, et al., “Generation of meter-scale hydrogen plasmas and efficient, pump-depletion-limited wakefield excitation using 10 GeV electron bunches,” Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 66, 025013 (2024). [Invited]

C. Zhang, C.-K. Huang, C. Joshi, “Self-organization of photoionized plasmas via kinetic instabilities,” Review of Modern Plasma Physics 7, 34 (2023). [Invited Review]

C. Zhang, et al., “Mapping the self-generated magnetic fields due to thermal Weibel instability,” PNAS 119(50), e2211713119 (2022).

C. Zhang, et al., “Measurements of the growth and saturation of electron Weibel instability in optical-field ionized plasmas,” Physical Review Letters 125(25), 255001 (2020).

C. Zhang, et al., “Ultrafast optical field-ionized gases- A laboratory platform for studying kinetic plasma instabilities,” Science Advances 5, eaax4545 (2019).

C. Zhang, et al., “Femtosecond probing of plasma wakefields and observation of the plasma wake reversal using a relativistic electron bunch,” Physical Review Letters 119, 064801 (2017). [Editors’ Suggestion]

A complete list of publications is available on my Google Scholar profile.