Yuanzhao Zhang (章元肇)

I am a Schmidt Science Fellow working with Steven Strogatz at Cornell. I got my Ph.D. in Physics from Northwestern, advised by Adilson Motter. Before that, I was a research intern at IBM Research. I will join Santa Fe Institute as an Omidyar Fellow in 2021.

My interest lies at the interface of networks and nonlinear dynamics. When microscopic entities interact, they can often coordinate with each other and achieve a macroscopic impact. Think of birds flocking together to confuse predators, cardiac pacemakers beating synchronously to create rhythmic impulses, and the decisions of millions of investors confluence to drive the financial market. My research aims to understand the underlying mechanisms behind such collective behaviors. From quantum networks to circadian clocks, and from cluster synchronization to chimera states, we have much to learn when it comes to the relations between a network’s structure, dynamics, and function. I draw techniques from dynamical systems, graph theory, and statistical mechanics to help uncover the simplicity hidden in these complex systems, and the resulting insights will help us harness the potential of our increasingly interconnected world.