Shangjia Zhang
(He/Him) Columbia University, PhD, Computational Astrophysicist
![prof_pic.jpg](/assets/img/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.