Guannan Zhang

Guannan Zhang is a Distinguished Staff Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and holds joint professorships in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Auburn University and the Department of Mathematics at the University of Tennessee. He earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Florida State University (2012) and holds degrees from Shandong University (B.Sc. 2007, M.Sc. 2009). His research focuses on machine learning, uncertainty quantification, stochastic optimization, and nonlinear data assimilation with applications in high-dimensional systems.

Key achievements include the DOE Early Career Award (2022), lead PI of the DOE-ASCR-AI4Science grant (2024), and a best paper award at SC24 (2024). He has supervised numerous interns from leading universities and collaborates on projects like diffusion models for scientific computing and generative AI.

Professional roles include editorial board membership of the SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing and involvement with SIAM committees. His work bridges applied mathematics and computational science, emphasizing interdisciplinary applications in climate modeling and fusion energy research.