George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Chair, Graduate Education Committee, Mechanical Engineering
Courtesy Appointment, Biomedical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Jessica Zhang is the George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She received her B.Eng. in Automotive Engineering and M.Eng. in Engineering Mechanics from Tsinghua University, China, and M.Eng. in Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, and Ph.D. in Computational Engineering and Sciences from the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (now Oden Institute), the University of Texas at Austin.
Zhang’s research interests include computational geometry, isogeometric analysis, finite element method, data-driven modeling, image processing, mesh generation, and their applications in computational biomedicine, materials science and engineering. Zhang’s group develops novel algorithms on biomodeling at molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ scales, and explores applications in various application fields. She has published over 240 technical articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings and is the author of the book Geometric Modeling and Mesh Generation from Scanned Images (CRC Press).
Zhang’s recent major awards include 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal and 2025 AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Award. She also received the Simons Visiting Professorship from Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach of Germany, the prestigious US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, NSF CAREER Award, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and US Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) Gallagher Young Investigator Award. At CMU, she received David P. Casasent Outstanding Research Award, George Tallman Ladd and Florence Barrett Ladd Professorship, Clarence H. Adamson Career Faculty Fellow in Mechanical Engineering, Donald L. & Rhonda Struminger Faculty Fellow, and George Tallman Ladd Research Award. She is a Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineers (IAMBE), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM), USACM, Solid Modeling Association (SMA), International Meshing Roundtable (IMR) and Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES) at Drexel. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Engineering with Computers.
2005 Ph.D., Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, University of Texas, Austin
2002 Master of Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Texas, Austin
1999 Master of Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University
1996 Bachelor of Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Tsinghua University
ASME
MechE’s Jessica Zhang delivered an invited keynote lecture and received the 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal, during the ASME Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference in Santa Ana Pueblo, NM on June 22-25, 2025.
SIAM International Meshing Roundtable conference
MechE’s Jessica Zhang and her group received two awards from the SIAM International Meshing Roundtable conference held on March 3-6, 2025 in Fort Worth, Texas.
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
MechE’s Jessica Zhang has been selected as the 2025 AWM-SIAM Kovalevsky Lecturer from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in recognition of her work in computational geometry and finite element methods.
ASME
MechE’s Jessica Zhang was recently selected to receive the 2025 ASME Van C. Mow Medal, which is bestowed upon an individual who has demonstrated meritorious contributions to the field of bioengineering through research, education, professional development, leadership in the development of the profession, mentorship to young bioengineers, and with service to the bioengineering community.
AWM and SIAM
MechE’s Jessica Zhang was recently awarded the prestigious 2025 AWM-SIAM Sonia Kovalevsky Lecture Prize, which is awarded annually by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) and SIAM to highlight significant contributions of women to applied or computational mathematics. The lecture is normally given at the SIAM Annual Meeting.
CMU Engineering
To support the development of new therapies for neurodegenerative disease and advance biohybrid robots, Jessica Zhang and Victoria Webster-Wood will lead a project to develop computational tools to predict neuron growth and transport regulation.
MechE’s Jessica Zhang recently delivered keynote lectures to present her latest research in two workshops in Europe.
IACM
MechE’s Jessica Zhang received the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM) Fellows Award during the the 16th World Congress on Computational Mechanics and 4th Pan American Congress on Computational Mechanic
SIAM
MechE’s Jessica Zhang was featured by SIAM in celebrating Women’s History Month, for her contributions to the applied mathematics and computational science field.
ASME IMECE
MechE’s Jessica Zhang presented at the ASME IMECE: CONCAM Distinguished Lectures on Computational Mechanics, where she discussed her research on modeling traffic jam and growth process of neurons using isogeomtric analysis and physics-informed neural network.
IMACS World Congress
MechE’s Jessica Zhang delivered a virtual keynote at the 21st International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (IMACS) World Congress conference.
CMU Engineering
Predicting neuron cell growth just got a little bit easier, thanks to CMU researchers.