The greatness of a university is not measured by the size of its buildings or its grounds, but by the calibre of its people.

It is with that in mind that we are thrilled to announce that former Penn State University Professor, Xin Zhang has joined Westlake University with the School of Science. He has joined us full-time as a professor of chemistry and a professor of cell biology.

Professor Zhang graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China with a bachelor’s degree, and completed his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). At 43 years old, he is one of the youngest tenured full professors hired by Westlake University (the other is Professor Jian Yang of the School of Life Sciences).

Professor Zhang’s research group intends to carry out long-term basic and applied research into synthetic chemistry, cell biology, biochemistry, chemical biology and other interdisciplinary subjects. The team will develop novel chemical probes that enable super-resolution quantitive imaging, reveal the physical property-function relationship of membraneless organelles, study how RNA phase separation affects their biological functions, and develop chemical or genetic approaches to ameliorate human diseases that are rooted in protein aggregation.

At present, the research group plans to recruit postdoctoral fellows, research assistants and doctoral candidates:

Postdoctoral Fellow: Obtained (or soon to obtain) a doctorate degree in chemistry, chemical biology, chemical engineering, biochemistry, biotechnology, biochemical engineering, cell biology, or other related majors. Priority is given to applicants with backgrounds in the following fields: natural product synthesis, fluorescent probe synthesis, chemical biology, or similar research backgrounds. Applicants should have strong experience in mammalian cell culture, immunofluorescence, fluorescent protein/probe labelling, and CRISPR and DNA/RNA-FISH technologies. Applicants should have published papers in mainstream international journals as the first author.

Research Assistant: Should have a bachelor degree or higher, or a relevant degree in the near future. Responsible for the daily operation of the laboratory, the management of laboratory equipment, reagents, consumables and research resources.

Doctoral student: Undergraduate and master’s students in chemistry, chemical biology, biochemistry, cell biology, chemical engineering, biochemical engineering, biotechnology, and other related majors.

If you think you would be a good fit for Professor Zhang’s research group, you can contact him at zhangxin@westlake.edu.cn.