Dr. Xu Zhang

Associate Professor

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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. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral associate at MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories from 2017 to 2018 and an Argonne Scholar at Argonne National Laboratory from 2018 to 2019. Zhang earned his 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. His research focuses on advanced electronic and photonic devices based on emerging nanomaterials. Current research directions include extreme transistor scaling in silicon, high-frequency electronics, neuromorphic computing, AI hardware, and tunable photonic devices with applications in computing, energy, communications, and sensing. His work has received numerous recognitions including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2023 and being named in MIT Technology Review’s Innovators 35 Global list in 2022 and China list in 2019.

Research Interests

Awards

#2023

National Science Foundation CAREER Award

2023-01-01
#2022

MIT Technology Review’s Innovators 35 (Global list)

2022-01-01
#2019

MIT Technology Review’s Innovators 35 (China list)

2019-01-01
#2018

Enrico Fermi Fellowship

2018-01-01
#2014

MIT Global Fellowship

2014-01-01
#2010

MIT Presidential Fellowship

2010-01-01

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.