His research focus is the intersection among medical imaging, diagnostics and therapy. His recent research areas include: MR metal artifact reduction, MR image synthesis, brain segmentation, multi-modal image reconstruction, super-resolution, cancer diagnostics, image-guided radiation therapy (4D-MRI, 5D-MRI). His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include Radiation Physics, Modern Diagnostic Imaging Systems, Radiation Protection, Advanced Non-ionizing-based Imaging, etc.

He has published more than 25 papers in academic journals in the areas of biomedical sciences, engineering, and medical physics. He has served as guest associate editor of the journal of medical physics, and has been a member of the AAPM since 2013.

Zhang has a B.E. in electrical engineering from University of Science and Technology of China, an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, a Ph.D. in medical physics from Duke University. Before joining Duke Kunshan in 2022, he was a research fellow of medical imaging at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.