Shangjia Zhang

(He/Him) Columbia University, PhD, Computational Astrophysicist

prof_pic.jpg

Pupin Hall 1026,

Columbia University

New York, NY, USA

sz3342 at columbia.edu

Hello! My name is Shangjia Zhang (张尚嘉). I am an NHFP (NASA Hubble Fellowship Program) Sagan Fellow at Columbia University, hosted by Prof. Jane Huang. I recently graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where I worked with Prof. Zhaohuan Zhu on various aspects of the protoplanetary disk, the birthplace of planets. Prior to Las Vegas, I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I worked with Prof. Lee Hartmann on star formation. Before that, I spent two years at Nanjing University, which has one of the most prestigious astronomy programs in China. I was born and raised in Beijing, China.

Currently, I study protoplanetary disks with a focus on self-consistent disk thermodynamics, including shadowing, planet-disk interactions, and vertical shear instability (VSI). I use the powerful Athena++ radiation module developed by Dr. Yan-Fei Jiang to carry out my research. The goal is to empower the interpretation of the increasingly detailed data from fast-advancing ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) and exAO (extreme Adaptive Optics) observations.

Since dust particles provide both the mass for planets and opacity for radiation, I am also interested in constraining dust particle size and porosity in protoplanetary disks using continuum and polarization observations.

Additionally, I am keen on inferring planet populations from ALMA surveys such as DSHARP and the Taurus sample, using fittings—including machine learning techniques—based on suites of planet-disk interaction simulations.

You can find my publications on ADS here.

selected publications

  1. Thermal Structure Determines Kinematics: Vertical Shear Instability in Stellar Irradiated Protoplanetary Disks
    Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, and Yan-Fei Jiang
    apj, Jun 2024
  2. Porous Dust Particles in Protoplanetary Disks: Application to the HL Tau Disk
    Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Takahiro Ueda, and 4 more authors
    apj, Aug 2023
  3. Substructures in Compact Disks of the Taurus Star-forming Region
    Shangjia Zhang, Matt Kalscheur, Feng Long, and 5 more authors
    apj, Aug 2023
  4. PGNets: planet mass prediction using convolutional neural networks for radio continuum observations of protoplanetary discs
    Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, and Mingon Kang
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mar 2022
  5. Self-consistent Ring Model in Protoplanetary Disks: Temperature Dips and Substructure Formation
    Shangjia Zhang, Xiao Hu, Zhaohuan Zhu, and 1 more author
    Astrophysical Journal, Dec 2021
  6. The effects of disc self-gravity and radiative cooling on the formation of gaps and spirals by young planets
    Shangjia Zhang, and Zhaohuan Zhu
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Apr 2020
  7. One Solution to the Mass Budget Problem for Planet Formation: Optically Thick Disks with Dust Scattering
    Zhaohuan Zhu, Shangjia Zhang, Yan-Fei Jiang, and 10 more authors
    Astrophysical Journal Letters, Jun 2019
  8. The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP). VII. The Planet-Disk Interactions Interpretation
    Shangjia Zhang, Zhaohuan Zhu, Jane Huang, and 12 more authors
    Astrophysical Journal Letters, Dec 2018