Dr. Chen Zhang

Chen Zhang

Computational Scientist

Dr. Chen Zhang is a Computational Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), specializing in neutron science, machine learning, and graph neural networks. He received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Management from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Michigan State University.

Prior to joining ORNL, Dr. Zhang held postdoctoral positions at Carnegie Mellon University and Colorado School of Mines, where he focused on developing automated data reduction software and real-time hardware control systems for high-throughput high-energy X-ray diffraction microscopy (HEDM) projects at the Advanced Photon Source.

Since joining the Computer Science and Mathematics Division at ORNL in 2020, Dr. Zhang has led several key initiatives. He spearheaded the development of BM3DORNL, an open-source library for ring artifact removal in neutron tomography, significantly enhancing data quality for neutron imaging instruments. His work on the Fusion Graph Neural Network (FuGNN) has advanced applications in neutron reflectometry and power-grid stability analysis. Dr. Zhang has also made substantial contributions to AI-driven research in neutron science, including the creation of DocSAGE, a local large language model and retrieval augmented generation system.

Dr. Zhang's research interests encompass high-performance computing, scientific software development, and materials characterization techniques. He is an active contributor to open-source projects in scientific computing and neutron science, and serves as a reviewer for several prominent journals in his field. His work continues to push the boundaries of computational methods in neutron science and AI applications, driving innovation in data analysis and instrument optimization at ORNL.