Trustees Award Tenure to Xiaohui “Frank” Zhang

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On December 15, the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees awarded tenure to Xiaohui “Frank” Zhang of the Biomedical Engineering Department. Zhang came to UMass Amherst in September of 2022 after serving as a tenured professor at Lehigh University.

Zhang applies quantitative biophysical approaches, particularly single-molecule detection and imaging techniques, to study the mechanosensing and activation mechanisms in the human circulatory system, viral infection, and tissue damage repair. The ultimate goal of his research is to develop a mechanically switchable nanodevice for targeted drug therapy for ailments such as stroke, thrombosis, and viral infection.

Zhang did postdoctoral research in 2008 at the Harvard Medical School on immune disease and pathology, after earning his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He took his M.Phil. in Biophysics at the University of Hong Kong and his B.S. in Biophysics and Biology at Sun Yat-sen University in China.

Prior to joining the Lehigh faculty, Zhang was also a principal investigator at the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhang’s work has been published in journals such as Science, Nature, and Blood, and he has presented at conferences around the world. He is the founding co-president of the International Society for Mechanobiology and the recipient of the Lehigh Interdisciplinary Research Excellence Award and the American Heart Association career award. (March 2023)