His recent awards include the 2020 American Chemical Society (ACS) Electrochemistry Award, the Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Royce Murray Young Investigator Award from the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC). He is the President of the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) in the 2019-2021 term. In 2014, he was selected as one of the Top 40 under 40 by the Analytical Scientist.

An overarching goal of Zhang’s research program is the development of a more complete understanding of the electrode/solution interface. Since starting his independent research program in 2008, the Zhang laboratory has become a leading group in the use of optical microscopy and spectroscopy methods to study electrochemical and interfacial chemistry problems, in single-entity electrochemistry, and in the development and use of various nanoelectrochemistry tools. A unique aspect of his research is the application of optical methods (e.g., super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, dark-field microscopy) in studying interfacial electrochemistry problems, such as probing the transient redox processes of single molecules and single nanoparticles and imaging the dynamic nucleation and growth of nanobubbles on an electrode. His group has proposed the use of massive electrochemical arrays and fluorescence/luminescence to image highly dynamic redox processes. In addition, his group has developed a variety of nanoscale electrochemical tools including metal nanoelectrodes, glass nanopores, and massive uniform bipolar electrochemical arrays to study neuronal activity and brain activity.