Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Phone: 435-586-7854
Fax: 435-865-8051
Office: SC 217
E-Mail:
zhang@suu.edu
Education
Ph.D. University of Missouri–Kansas City, 2002
M.S. University of Science and Technology of China, 1996
Biography
Dr. Zhang came to the United States in 1996 and landed in a beautiful heartland city, Kansas City, to study his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry. He was majoring in positron annihilation spectroscopy and its application in polymeric materials under the supervision of Dr. Y. C. Jean, who is one of the pioneers in this field. During his Ph.D. study, he setup a state-of-the-art instrument in the field, Slow Positron Beam in his lab and employed it to investigate the degradation of coating materials. He graduated in 2002 with a recognition of "Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award" and proceeded with one year of postdoctoral training. In 2003, he moved from mid west to east coast for his second postdoctoral position at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and carried on the research of Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry in addition to Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy. In 2005, he finally settled in one of the most beautiful places in the world, Cedar City, and was offered an assistant professorship in Chemistry at Southern Utah University.
Description of Research
Over summer vacation, Dr. Zhang collaborated with Brandeis University, University of Missouri–Kansas City and Chinese Academy of Science to perform research on positron annihilation spectroscopy and computational chemistry. Currently, he is working vigorously to set up his own positron lab for undergraduate research. Meanwhile, he is doing the research on the computer simulation of nonlinear chemical dynamics and pattern formation in chemical systems. He has authored and co-authored more than 30 papers in his academic career.
Recent Publications
(1) "Studying Polyamide Water Separation Film Using Slow Positron Beam", Renwu Zhang, Patrick Bell, Justin R. Proirie, Paul M. Johnson, Lindsay A Everhart, Y. C. Jean and C. C. Hu, Material Science Forum, Vol. 607, 67–69 (2009)
(2) "Polymeric membrane studied using slow positron beam", Wei-Song Hung, Chia-Hao Lo, Mei-Ling Cheng, Hongmin Chen, Guang Liu, Lakshmi Chakka, D. Nanda, Kuo-Lun Tung, Shu-Hsien Huang, Kueir-Rarn Lee, Juin-Yih Lai, Yi-Ming Sun, Chang-Cheng Yu, Renwu Zhang , Y.C. Jean, Applied Surface Science, 255, 201–204, (2008)
(3) “Propagation and refraction of chemical waves generated by local pacing forcing in a reaction-diffusion model”, Renwu Zhang, Lingfa Yang, Anatol M. Zhabotinsky, and Irving R. Epstein, Physical Review E, 76, 016201 (2007)
(4) “Studying Conductive Polymer Coating (BAM – PPV) Using Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy” Renwu Zhang, Paul M. Johnson, Ryan J. Deluca, Terry D. Alger , Jun Xu, R. Suzuki, T. Ohdaira and Y. C. Jean, Phys. Stat. Sol. (c), 4, No. 10, 3789 – 3972 (2007)
