Xin Zhang (engineer)

Zhang received her Ph.D. from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She was a postdoctoral researcher and then a research scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Zhang joined the faculty of Boston University in 2002, and became Inaugural Distinguished Faculty Fellow of Engineering in 2009, and Distinguished Professor of Engineering in 2022.

Zhang leads the Laboratory for Microsystems Technology (LMST) [2] at Boston University that focuses on the broad areas of metamaterials and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS or microsystems).

• Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2015) [3]
• Fellow of the Optica (2016) [4]
• Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2016) [5]
• Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2017)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016) [6]
• Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (2017) [7]
• Fellow of the American Physical Society (2019) [8]
• Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2019) [9]

• 2023: IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award [10]
• 2023: STAT Madness All-Star Award [11]
• 2023: ASME Per Bruel Gold Medal [12]
• 2022: IET Innovation Award on Chief Engineer of the Year (Finalist)
• 2022: Guggenheim Fellowship[13][14]
• 2022: Distinguished Professor of Engineering, Boston University[15]
• 2021: Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Science and Engineering [16]
• 2021: IET Innovation Award on Digital Health and Social Care (Finalist)
• 2021: IET Innovation Award on Tech for Good (Finalist)
• 2021: Invented Here! Honoree, Boston Patent Law Association [17]
• 2020: IET Achievement Medal (Finalist) [18]
• 2020: Invented Here! Honoree, Boston Patent Law Association
• 2020: IET Innovation Award on Excellence in R&D (Finalist)
• 2019: Fellow of National Academy of Inventors[19]
• 2019: IET Innovation Award on Emerging Technology Design [20][21]
• 2018: Boston University Innovator of the Year Award [22]
• 2018: Charles DeLisi Award and Distinguished Lecture [23][24]
• 2016: IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award [25]

Recently, Zhang's research on metamaterials, both those [26] that enable highly efficient, air-permeable sound silencing and noise reduction and those [27] that markedly boosts MRI signal-to-noise ratio and thus significantly improves the performance of MRI, have drawn significant worldwide interest from the scientific community and industry, with the stories having been picked up by 300+ media outlets.[28][29][30][31][32][33]

Zhang is Director of both the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site [34] and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site [35] in Integrated Nanomanufacturing at Boston University. She also serves as Associate Director of the Boston University Nanotechnology Innovation Center.[36]