Dr. Peijun Zhang obtained her Ph.D. in Biophysics and Physiology from University Virginia, USA; and M.S. in Physics and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Nanjing University, China. She was a postdoc, and later a staff scientist, at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA. In 2006, she joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh, and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2012. She was recently recruited to the University of Oxford as a full professor, and jointly as the founding director of eBIC (the UK National Electron Bio-imaging Centre) at the Diamond Light Source. She pursues an integrated, atomistic understanding of the molecular mechanisms of large protein complexes and assemblies—particularly those involved in HIV-1 pathogenesis and bacterial chemotaxis signaling—by developing and combining novel technologies for high-resolution cryoEM and cryoET.

Dr. Zhang received many awards, including the Wellcome Trust Investigator Award, Carnegie Science Emerging Female Scientist Award, and University of Pittsburgh Senior Vice Chancellor’s Award.