Jenny Zhang (chemist)

Zhang was born in China, and moved to Gosford, Australia at age eight.^[4][5] She credits her mother's stories explaining the scientific basis of various phenomena with stimulating her interest in science.^[6] She moved to Sydney to attend the University of Sydney, where she completed a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) in 2007 and a PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Trevor Hambley in 2011.^[7][8] During her PhD, Zhang also briefly worked at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[9]

Zhang's doctoral research was in the area of bioinorganic chemistry,^[10] and she worked on the development of a platinum-based library of chemotherapeutic candidates featuring anthraquinone ligands and redox activity. This involved using a variety of imaging techniques (including those based on synchrotron radiation) to study the biological distributions and metabolism of the chemotherapeutics in 3D solid tumour models,^[11][12][13] and synthetic strategies to generate new examples of such complexes.^[14]

Zhang sought a change in research field following her PhD,^[15] and in 2013 she joined the group of Professor Erwin Reisner at the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral fellow after receiving a Marie Skłodowska-Curie International Fellowship,^[16] also becoming a Research Associate of St John's College.^[17] This brought her into sustainability research, in particular artificial photosynthesis.^[18][19] Her postdoctoral research involved developing ways to wire oxidoreductases to electrodes and use photosynthesis to generate a sustainable biofuel, especially photosystem II.^[20][21][22]

In 2018, Zhang was awarded a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship to start her own, independent research group in the Department of Chemistry at Cambridge.^[23][24] In her independent career, she has continued to work on the re-wiring of photosynthesis but now focuses on doing so in live cells.^[25][26] She also became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, where she is now Director of Studies in Natural Sciences Chemistry.^[27] Zhang was recognised for her contributions to semi-artificial photosynthesis with the award of the Felix Franks Biotechnology Medal from the RSC in 2020.^[28]