Holding titles of Canada Research Chair (Tier II) (2017-2027) and Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar (2022-2027), Dr. Zhang’s primary appointment is an associate professor at University of Victoria. He is also an associate member of Centre for Heart Lung Innovation at the University of British Columbia (2019-2024) and an adjunct faculty in Max Rady College of Medicine at Univ of Manitoba (2021-2024).

Area of Interest

Dr. Zhang focuses on developing and applying novel statistics methods and software tools to unravel the intricacies of big data in a wide array of domains, including medical research, agricultural sciences, economics, and the study of environmental ecosystems. His research interests include (1) Bioinformatics, (2) Biostatistics, (3) Machine learning, (4) Design of clinical trials, and (5) COPD.

Education and Training

PhD degree in statistics from the University of British Columbia (09/2007-05/2011) under the supervision of Dr. Raphael Gottardo and Dr. Kevin P. Murphy. Held a BCIC Innovation Scholarship (2007-2009) and a NSERC CGS-D scholarship (2009-2011)

Visiting scholar at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (2011), supported by Canada Graduate Scholarships – MSFSS.

Postdoctoral fellow at the Dept. of Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University (2011-2013) under the supervision of Dr. Hongkai Ji and Dr. Rafael Irizarry, partially funded by with NSERC PDF award.