Prof Zhang is currently the head of the Artificial Intelligence and Modelling in Epidemiology Program, at School Translational Medicine, Monash University, Australia.

He completed his Bachelor's and Masters's in Mathematics at the University of Sydney in 2002 and his PhD in Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 2006. He was appointed Professor at Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine Monash University in 2022.

Prof Zhang is a very experienced epidemiologist and health economist. He has rich cross-disciplinary research experience in mathematics, epidemiology, artificial intelligence and health economics. To date, he has published 315 publications (300 papers, 6 book chapters, 9 technical reports), 201 of which are first/senior authored. He regularly publishes in leading journals (Lancet HIV, Lancet GH, Lancet ID, Lancet RH, Diabetes Care, Diabetologia, Genetics in Medicine, International Journal of Epidemiology and Journal of Infections). His papers have been cited more than 10,000 times. He presented 45 times at national/international HIV/STI conferences and 28 invited talks.

He established the China-Australia Joint Research Center for Infectious Diseases in 2019 which facilitates a strong collaboration in education and research between Monash University and Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. The center has since published >130 papers and attracted $2.6m in grants.

His research has attracted a total of $7.2m in international, governmental and philanthropic grants. He has supervised/is supervising 66 postdocs/postgraduates: 6 postdocs (2 completed), 26 PhD students (8 completed) and 35 master students (15 completed). His team was awarded China's Key Medical Development Award 2020, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Australasian Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance Innovation Award in 2021.

He has advised for Technical Working Group for Needle-Syringe Programs Evaluation in EECA at the World Bank (2013), the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for Viral Hepatitis at WHO (2014-2019), the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for Viral Hepatitis and at WHO Western Pacific (2018) and Immunization and Vaccines Related Implementation Research Advisory Committee at WHO Geneva (2022). He is a founding member of China's National Cervical Cancer Control Committee (since 2020) and the Working Committee of the Chinese Medical Association for Promoting the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis, China (since 2022).