Dr. Xu Zhang

Associate Professor

Build a Statement of Purpose

Generate a tailored SOP for Dr. Xu Zhang. Improve your application with a focused, well-structured draft.

Biography

Xu Zhang is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He joined CMU in 2019 as a tenure-track assistant professor after serving as a postdoctoral associate at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories and as an Argonne Scholar at Argonne National Laboratory. His academic background includes a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Physics from the University of Science and Technology of China. Zhang's research interests focus on advanced electronic and photonic devices based on emerging nanomaterials. His current research explores extreme transistor scaling in silicon, high-frequency electronics, neuromorphic computing, AI hardware, and tunable photonic devices with applications in computing, energy, communication, and sensing. His work has been acknowledged with numerous awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2023 and recognition on MIT Technology Review’s Innovators 35 list in both 2022 and 2019.

Research Interests

Awards

#

National Science Foundation CAREER Award

#

MIT Technology Review’s Innovators 35

#

MIT Technology Review’s Innovators 35

#

Enrico Fermi Fellowship

#

MIT Global Fellowship

#

MIT Presidential Fellowship

Requirements for Carnegie Mellon University

Doctorate Program
Requirements
GPA Requirement
Required:3.5
GRE General
Verbal
Required:158
Quantitative
Required:149
Analytical Writing
Required:4
Overall
Required:4
Prerequisites
Bachelor's degree in Psychology or related field Research experience/publications
Application Checklist
  • Online application
  • Statement of Purpose
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Transcripts
  • GRE scores (optional but reported in profile)
  • English Proficiency (TOEFL/IELTS/Duolingo)
Specialization Notes

Admission is extremely competitive with no strict GPA cut-offs; holistic review is used.