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About My Name
About My Name
My family name "Zhang" (张) means "long bow" in Chinese originally, which may indicate that my ancestors were hunters. My given name Yu (宇) , pronounced as "yü" if you can speak German, means "space" in Chinese. Both of my family and given names are very very common in China. There are ~ 90 million people with the surname "Zhang" (张) in China now. By the way, not all Chinese surnames with the English spelling as "Zhang" are "张", they could also be "章", which is much less common than "张".
Basic Working Info
Basic Working Info
I am now working as a Research Scientist at the Ames National Laboratory (affiliated with Iowa State University).
Previously I was a Staff Scientist at Q-Chem Inc., a quantum chemistry software company founded in 1993. Before that I worked as a Research Associate at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. My main research topic at SLAC was about the theory of new X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) spectroscopy, especially X-ray nonlinear spectroscopy techniques. Before working at SLAC, I worked as a senior postdoc at University of California, Irvine, where was led into the field of theoretical spectroscopy by Prof. Shaul Mukamel. I started my postdoc research at Purdue University, focusing on the formal aspect of density functional theory.
Early Life and Education
Early Life and Education
I was born in the remote and mountainous west region of Hunan Province, central south China. I inherit the blood of Tujia people from my mother. After several years of elementary school education in various country villages, I moved to the Changsha, the capital of Hunan, and then started my secondary education. I went to Xiamen University for my undergraduate study and got a B. S. in chemistry there. Later I got a M. S. in physical chemistry at Peking University.
Unfortunately I could not obtain a student visa to enter US and pursue my PhD study right after the September 11 attacks, so in 2003, I went to Canada instead and got a PhD in theoretical chemistry at University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Interest
Interest
Academic
General: quantum many-body problem
General: scientific computing and programming
General: quantum chemistry of light-matter interaction
General: X-ray laser spectroscopy
General: algorithms for efficient quantum chemistry calculations
Specific: density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT)
Specific: efficient and robust excited state methods
Specific: X-ray nonlinear spectroscopy simulation
Specific: ultrafast electron dynamics
Specific: quantum chemistry code making use of exascale computing resources
Begin to study: quantum computing and machine learning
Non-academic
Reading
Chinese classical literature
Fishing and cooking
Travel, hiking and sightseeing
Olympic weightlifting and badminton
Selected Publications
Selected Publications
Generation of Intense Phase-stable Femtosecond Hard X-ray Pulse Pairs
Y Zhang et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119 (12), e2119616119 (2022).
Double Core Hole Valence-to-Core X-ray Emission Spectroscopy: A Theoretical Exploration Using Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory
X-ray Raman Optical Activity of Chiral Molecules
JR Rouxel*, Y Zhang*, S Mukamel, Chemical Science, 898-908 (2019).
X-ray Circular Dichroism Signals: A Unique Probe of Local Molecular Chirality
Y Zhang, JR Rouxel, J Autschbach, N Govind, S Mukamel, Chemical Science 8, 5969-5978 (2017).
Coherent Control of Long-range Photoinduced Electron Transfer by Stimulated X-ray Raman Processes
Nonlinear Spectroscopy of Core and Valence Excitations Using Short X-Ray Pulses: Simulation Challenges
Y Zhang, W Hua, K Bennett, S Mukamel, Topics in Current Chemistry 368, 273-345 (2016).
Simulating Valence-to-core X-ray Emission Spectroscopy of Transition Metal Complexes with Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory
Monitoring Long-range Electron Transfer Pathways in Proteins by Stimulated Attosecond Broadband X-ray Raman Spectroscopy
Watching Energy Transfer in Metalloporphyrin Heterodimers Using Stimulated X-ray Raman Spectroscopy
Core and Valence Excitations in Resonant X-ray Spectroscopy Using Restricted Excitation Window Time-dependent Density Functional Theory
Perturbative Total Energy Evaluation in Self-consistent Field Iterations: Tests on Molecular Systems
YA Zhang, YA Wang, The Journal of Chemical Physics 130 (14), 144116 (2009).
* equal contribution
For the full and up-to-date publication list, please see my google citation page.
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