Research interest:

My major research direction is high energy astrophysics. The astrophysical objects I have been studying include gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), pulsars (PSRs), and magnetars (SGRs and AXPs). Other directions I work on include active galactic nuclei (AGNs), cosmology, neutrino astrophysics, and extrasolar planets.

I am interested in the mechanisms with which all these objects radiate across the whole electromagnetic spectrum, including gamma-ray, X-ray, UV, optical, IR, and radio. I am also interested in the possible non-electromagnetic signals, such as neutrinos and gravitational waves, from some of these objects. My research activities include seeking for theoretical interpretations and predictions of various phenomena and proposing observational tests to the theories.


I am a team member of NASA's Swift mission. This is a dedicated satellite to explore the mysterious cosmological gamma-ray bursts. Recent major discoveries from the Swift collaboration include:


• Discovery of the transition phase between the GRB prompt emission and afterglow
• Discovery of erratic X-ray flares following GRBs
• Discovery of the first X-ray afterglow of short-duration GRBs (GRB 050509B)
• Discovery of the long term X-ray afterglow of another short GRB 050724
  
• Discovery of GRB 050904 as the most distant GRB (z=6.29)
• Discovery of GRB 060218: a nearby GRB (z=0.033) with Type Ic supernova association
• Discovery of GRB 060614 that requires new GRB classification schemes. Here is my Nature News and Views article for the burst.
• Discovery of "naked eye" GRB 080319B
The PI Neil Gehrels and the Swift team won the 2007 Bruno Rossi Prize of the High Energy Astrophysics Division, American Astronomical Society.

Here are my recent review articles on GRB research:
International Journal of Modern Physics A (Zhang & Meszaros 2004)
Chinese Journal of Astronomy & Astrophysics (Zhang 2007)

My recent paper on a canonical GRB X-ray lightcurve from the Swift XRT observations and its interpretation was identified as the New Hot Paper in Space Science by Essential Science Indicators in July 2007. Here is the paper, and here is a brief interview of me about this paper.

Here are two recent GRB meetings I have hosted/organized:
The 2008 Swift Science meeting at UNLV (Feb. 4-5, 2008)
The 2008 Nanjing GRB Conference (Jun. 23-27, 2008)

Teaching:

AST103 (fall 2004, spring 2005)
AST104 (fall 2005, spring 2006, spring 2007, fall 2007,spring 2008)
AST713 (spring 2006, fall 2008)
AST725 (fall 2006)

Research Group:

Current group members include:

• Mr. Francisco Virgili (graduate student)
• Ms. Amanda Maxham (graduate student)
• Mr. Bin-Bin Zhang (graduate student)
• Mr. David Whitehead (graduate student)
• Ms. Tesla Birnbaum (undergraduate student)
• Mr. Robert Gex (undergraduate student)

It was my pleasure to have the following people to visit and work in my group in the past:

Past postdoc fellows and/or research associates:
• Dr. En-Wei Liang, 12/04-12/07 (RA). Current position: Professor, Guangxi University, China.
• Dr. Nayantara Gupta, 03/06-09/07. Current position: faculty, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India.
• Dr. Jaroslaw Dyks, 10/04-05/05. Current position: faculty, Nicolaus Copernicus Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, Torun, Poland.

Past long term visitors:
• Prof. Janusz Gil, 01/05-07/05, visiting professor. Current position: Director and Professor, Institute of Astronomy, Zielona Gora University, Poland.
• Prof. Zi-Gao Dai, 02/06-05/06, visiting professor. Current position: Changjiang Professor, Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, China.
• Dr. Yi-Zhong Fan, 09/04-08/05, visiting student. Current position: Postdoc fellow, Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark; and Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

Past short term visitors:
• Dr. Sarira Sahu (UNAM, Mexico, short term visitor, 03/09)
• Dr. Asaf Pe'er (Space Telescope Science Institute, short term visitor, 02/09)
• Mr. Kohta Murase (Yukawa Institute, Kyoto University, visiting student, 10/08-11/08)
• Dr. Yosuke Mizuno (National Space Science and Technology Center. Short term visitor, 04/08-06/08)
• Ms. Nicola Lyons (University of Leicester, UK, visiting student, 04/08-05/08)
• Dr. Xue-Feng Wu (Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Short term visitor, 11/07)
• Ms. Razieh Behkam (Arizona State University, visiting student, 07/07-08/07)
• Mr. Rong-Feng Shen (University of Texas, Austin, visiting student, 08/07)

Here is the Group Site

Contact information:
 

Office: Rm. 238, BPB

Phone: (702)-895-4050 (Office), (702)-450-6106(Home)

Fax: (702)-895-0804

Mailing Address: Box 454002, 4505 Maryland Parkway, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4002, USA

Email: zhang@physics.unlv.edu
 
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