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Teaching


ZHANG Lei,
Boya Distinguished Professor
(中文版)

Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research (BICMR)
Center for Quantitative Biology (CQB),
Center for Machine Learning Research (CMLR), Peking University.

Office: No.78 Jingchunyuan, 78409
Tel : +86 10-62744126
Fax: +86 10-62744134
Email: pkuzhangl_at_pku.edu.cn

Post address:
Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China 100871.

My Biography


Research Interests

  • Scientific computing, rare events, solution landscape, saddle point algorithm
  • Math Biology, computational systems biology
  • Computational materials science, liquid crystlas, soft matter
  • Machine learning

News and Events

  • 2023/11, Congratulations to Dr. Jianyuan Yin and Zhen Huang for their paper “Revealing Excited States of Rotational Bose-Einstein Condensates” being published by The Innovation (IF(2023):33.1). This is a joint work with Prof. Qiang Du (Columbia U.) and Prof. Yongyong Cai (Beijing Normal U.).
  • 2023/10, Congratulations to Dr. Yucen Han and Baomign Shi for their paper “A Reduced Landau-de Gennes Study for Nematic Equilibria in Three-Dimensional Prisms” being accepted by IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics. This is a joint work with Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde).
  • 2023/6, Congratulations to Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for his paper “A model-free shrinking-dimer saddle dynamics for finding saddle point and solution landscape” being accepted by Japan Journal of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (Wuhan U. and PKU).
  • 2023/6, Congratulations to Dr. Donghang Zhang for his paper “Spectral Deferred Correction Method for Landau-Brazovskii Model with Convex Splitting Technique” being accepted by Journal of Computational Physics.
  • 2023/6, Congratulations to Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for his paper “Error estimate for semi-implicit method of sphere-constrained high-index saddle dynamics” being accepted by Chinese Annals of Mathematics, Series B. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (Wuhan U. and PKU).
  • 2023/4, Congratulations to Dr. Jianyuan Yin and Bing Yu on their publication in SCIENCE CHINA Mathematics“Yin J Y, Yu B, Zhang L. Searching the solution landscape by generalized high-index saddle dynamics. Sci China Math, 2021”. It has been awarded the 6th “SCIENCE CHINA Mathematics Outstanding Paper Award”.
  • 2023/4, Congratulations to Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for his paper “Discretization and index-robust error analysis for constrained high-index saddle dynamics on high-dimensional sphere” being accepted by SCIENCE CHINA Mathematics. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (Wuhan U. and PKU).
  • 2023/03, Congratulations to Baomign Shi and Dr. Yucen Han for their paper “Hierarchies of Critical Points of a Landau-de Gennes Free Energy on Three-Dimensional Cuboids” being accepted by Nonlinearity. This is a joint work with Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde).
  • 2023/01, Congratulations to Xiangyu Kuang and Guoye Guan for their paper “MorphoSim: An efficient and scalable phase-field framework for accurately simulating multicellular morphologies” being accepted by npj Systems Biology and Applications. We further developed MorphoSim Toolbox. This is a joint work with Prof. Chao Tang (PKU).
  • 2022/10, Congratulations to Xiangyu Kuang and Guoye Guan for their paper “Comparison between phase-field model and coarse-grained model for characterizing cell-resolved morphological and mechanical properties in a multicellular system” being accepted by Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation. This is a joint work with Prof. Chao Tang (PKU).
  • 2022/9, Congratulations to Dr. Lingxia Qiao for her paper “Network design principle for robust oscillatory behaviors with respect to biological noise” being published by eLife.
  • 2022/8, Congratulations to Yue Luo and Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for their paper “Convergence analysis of discrete high-index saddle dynamics” being accepted by SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis.
  • 2022/7, Congratulations to Dr. Bing Yu and Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for their paper “Computing solution landscape of nonlinear space-fractional problems via fast approximation algorithm” being accepted by Journal of Computational Physics. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (PKU).
  • 2022/7, Congratulations to Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for his paper “Mathematical and numerical analysis to shrinking-dimer saddle dynamics with local Lipschitz conditions” being accepted by CSIAM Transactions on Applied Mathematics. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (PKU).
  • 2022/7, Congratulations to Dr. Xiangcheng Zheng for his paper “Error estimates for Euler discretization of high-index saddle dynamics” being accepted by SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (PKU).
  • 2022/6, Congratulations to Baomign Shi and Dr. Yucen Han for their paper "Nematic liquid crystals in a rectangular confinement: solution landscape and bifurcation" being accepted by SIAM J. Appl. Math.
  • 2022/6, Congratulations to Dr. Lingxia Qiao for her paper “Coactivation of antagonistic genes stabilizes polarity patterning during shoot organogenesis" being published by Science Advances. This is a joint work with Prof. Yuling Jiao (Life Science, PKU).(PKU News)
  • 2022/4, Congratulations to Dr. Xiaolu Guo for her paper “The Nonequilibrium Mechanism of Noise Enhancer synergizing with Activator in HIV Latency Reactivation" being accepted by iScience. This is a joint work with Prof. Hao Ge (PKU).
  • 2022/4, Congratulations to Dr. Yucen Han for her paper “Elastic anisotropy in the reduced Landau-de Gennes model" being accepted by Proceedings of the Royal Society A. This is a joint work with Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde).
  • 2022/4, Congratulations to Dr. Xiaomei Yao for her paper “Transition pathways in Cylinder-Gyroid interface" being accepted by Commun. Comput. Phys.. This is a joint work with Prof. Jie Xu (CAS).
  • 2022/3, Congratulations to Dr. Xiaomei Yao for her paper “Defect patterns of two-dimensional nematic liquid crystals in confinement" being accepted by Physical Review E. This is a joint work with Prof. Jeff Chen (University of Waterloo).
  • 2022/3, Congratulations to Dr. Jianyuan Yin and Zhen Huang for their paper “Constrained high-index saddle dynamics for the solution landscape with equality constraints" being accepted by Journal of Scientific Computing.
  • 2022/01, Congratulations to Xiangyu Kuang for his paper “Computable early Caenorhabditis elegans embryo with a phase field model" being publised by PLOS Computational Biology. A cell is the smallest unit of life. Cells of different species, organs, and tissues have different morphologies, and morphology characterizes their mechanical properties and functions. What kind of mathematical/physical equations can accurately describe cell morphology and mechanics is an important and fascinating problem for biomechanics, cell biology, and developmental biology. We proposed a phase field model coupled with experimental data to accurately compute the morphological evolution of C. elegans embryo in vivo. The model can infer the underlying cellular mechanical properties and was utilized to analyze the early C. elegans embryogenesis. This is a joint work with Prof. Chao Tang (PKU).
  • 2021/12, Congratulations to Dr. Jianyuan Yin for his paper “Transition pathways connecting crystals and quasicrystals" being published in PNAS. Despite the fact that tremendous efforts have been made on the study of quasicrystals since their discovery in 1984, nucleation of quasicrystals, viz. the emergence of a quasicrystal from a crystalline phase, still presents an unsolved problem. The difficulties lie in that quasicrystals and crystals are incommensurate structures in general, so there are no obvious epitaxial relations between them. We solved this problem by applying an Saddle Dynamics method to Landau theory of phase transitions and obtained the accurate critical nuclei and transition pathways connecting crystalline and quasicrystalline phases. The proposed computational methodology not only reveals the mechanism of nucleation of quasicrystals, but also paves the way to investigate a wide range of physical problems undergoing the first-order phase transitions. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (PKU), Prof. An-Chang Shi (McMaster University), and Prof. Kai Jiang (Xiangtan University).(PKU News)
  • 2021/11, Congratulations to Dr. Jianyuan Yin for his paper “Solution Landscape of the Onsager Model Identifies Non-axisymmetric Critical Points" being published in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena. We proposed a solution landscape approach to investigate the critical points of the three-dimensional Onsager model on a sphere with different interaction potentials, and numerically answered some open questions, including finding the unstable non-axisymmetric critical points. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (PKU).
  • 2021/09, Welcome Dr. ZHANG He (PhD at Penn State University, US) join our group!
  • 2021/8, Congratulations to Dr. Yuzhe Zhang for his paper “Construction of a minimum energy path for the VT flash model by the string method coupled with the exponential time differencing scheme" being accepted by Commun. Comput. Phys.. This is a joint work with Prof. Shuyu Sun (KAUST).
  • 2020/08, we published a review paper “Modelling and Computation of Liquid Crystals” in Acta Numerica, joint with Prof. Pingwen Zhang (PKU) and Wei Wang (Zhejiang University).Liquid crystals are a type of soft matter that is intermediate between crystalline solids and isotropic fluids. The study of liquid crystals has made tremendous progress over the past four decades, which is of great importance for fundamental scientific research and has widespread applications in industry. In this paper we review the mathematical models and their connections to liquid crystals, and survey the developments of numerical methods for finding rich configurations of liquid crystals.(PKU News)
  • 2021/8, Congratulations to Dr. Yucen Han and Dr. Jianyuan Yin for the paper “Solution Landscapes of the Simplified Ericksen-Leslie Model and its Comparison with the Reduced Landau-de Gennes Model" being accepted by Proceedings of the Royal Society A. This is a joint work with Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde) and Prof. Yucheng Hu (Capital Normal University).
  • 2021/6, Congratulations to Dr. Zhen Xu for the paper “Solution landscapes of the diblock copolymer-homopolymer model under two-dimensional confinement" being accepted by Physical Review E. This is a joint work with Prof. Yasumasa Nishiura (Hokkaido University).
  • 2021/6, Congratulations to Dr. Wei Zhao for the paper “Modeling of histone modifications reveals formation mechanism and function of bivalent chromatin" being accepted by iScience. This is a joint work with Prof. Qing Nie (UC Irvine).
  • 2021/06, Congratulations to Jianyuan Yin and Ruotai Li for successfully passing the Ph.D. thesis defense! Congratulations to Shiyu Yan and Di Xie for successfully passing the Master thesis defense!
  • 2020/10, Congratulations to Yucen Han and Jianyuan Yin for the paper “Solution landscape of a reduced Landau-de Gennes model on a hexagon" being accepted by Nonlinearity. This is a joint work with Prof. Pingwen Zhang and Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde).
  • 2020/10, Congratulations to our group members, WANG Haoran and HUANG Zhen for their excellent achievements in S. T. YAU College Student Mathematics Contest 2020. WANG Haoran 1 Goald (individual all-around) and 2 Silvers (Applied and Computational Math, Analysis and Differential equations) , HUANG Zhen 1 Bronze (Applied and Computational Math) [Link]
  • 2020/10, Welcome Dr. YAO Xiaomei (PhD at Beijing Normal University) join our group!
  • 2020/09, Congratulations to Dr. HAN Yucen for her award “Newton International Fellowship" by the Royal Society, UK. She will work with Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde).
  • 2020/08, Congratulations to Ruotai Li for his paper “Numerical discretization of variational phase field model for phase transitions in ferroelectric thin films" has been accepted by Commun. Comput. Phys.. This is a joint work with Prof. Qiang Du (Columbia University).
  • 2020/07, Welcome Dr. Donghang ZHANG (PhD at AMSS, CAS) join our group!
  • 2020/07, Congratulations to Bing Yu and Jianyuan Yin for their paper “Searching the solution landscape by generalized high-index saddle dynamics" has been accepted by SCIENCE CHINA Mathematics.
  • 2020/06, Congratulations to QIAO Lingxia, GUO Xiaolu, HAN Yucen, ZHAO Wei for successfully passing the thesis defense! They will be postdocs at UCSD,UCLA,U. of Strathclyde, UCI, respectively.
  • 2020/04, Congratulations to Dr. Kuan Tao for his paper “Tuning cell motility via cell tension with a mechanochemical cell migration model” has been accepted by Biophysical Journal. This is a joint work with Prof. Feng Liu (CQB, PKU).
  • 2020/04, Congratulations to Ruotai Li for his paper “Variational Phase Field Formulations of Polarization and Phase Transition in Ferroelectric Thin Films” has been accepted by SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics. This is a joint work with Prof. Qiang Du (Columbia University).
  • 2020/04, Congratulations to Yucen Han for her paper “A Reduced Study for Nematic Equilibria on Two-Dimensional Polygons” has been accepted by SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics. This is a joint work with Prof. Apala Majumdar (University of Strathclyde).
  • 2020/03, Congratulations to Bing Yu for his paper “Global optimization-based dimer method for finding saddle points” has been accepted by Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. Ser. B.
  • 2020/03, Congratulations to Jianyuan Yin for publishing the paper “Construction of a pathway map on a complicated energy landscape” in Phys. Rev. Lett.. This work is joint with Prof. Pingwen Zhang and Prof. Jeff Z.Y. Chen in University of Waterloo.

Graduate students and Postdocs Position

  • We are constantly recruiting diligent and bright Ph.D. students.
  • We have postdoc positions available! Candidates with recently awarded Ph.D. degrees from all countries in the area of computational math and math biology are encouraged to apply. These are two-year full-time positions, with salary 250,000+ Chinese Yuan (RMB) per year (before tax). Once accepted, they are also qualified for all other benefits of Peking University postdoctoral fellows, including health insurance and subsidized housing arrangements.
  • If you are interested in working with us, please send your CV to me directly.

 

 

Page maintained by Lei Zhang; last updated: 2022/06