Physicist, 82nd alumnus of School of Physical Science and Technology of Wuhan University, researcher of condensed matter science research department of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, professor of physics and astronomy department of University of Tennessee, currently deputy editor-in-chief of Physical Review Express, editor-in-chief of Nano Research Magazine, China Physical Express and ACTA Physics.

He has been engaged in the theoretical research of condensed matter for a long time, and has made important achievements in studying low-dimensional systems and nano-materials by multi-scale methods, especially the surface growth mechanism and stability. After the concept of quantum growth of surface thin films was put forward, it caused great repercussions in the academic field of surface science, and it is still a very interesting issue in this field. A new method of growing high quality thin films with surfactants is proposed. In close cooperation with the experiment, a large number of problems in the surface growth process were solved on the basis of establishing a simple physical model.

In 2008, Zhang Zhenyu's research team in Oak Ridge National Laboratory successfully predicted that there were a large number of topological insulators in the ternary compound family based on LaPtBi. They directly calculated its Z2 topological invariants by first-principles method, and proved that it is a strong topological insulator.