Ray Zirui Zhang

Ray Zirui Zhang is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, Irvine, mentored by John Lowengrub. His research focuses on scientific machine learning, numerical analysis, and their applications in biophysics and cancer research. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from UC San Diego, advised by Li-Tien Cheng and Bo Li.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Mathematics, UC San Diego (2017-2022)
• M.Sc. in Computational Science, UC San Diego (2017-2019)
• Bachelor of Engineering, University of Hong Kong (2012-2016)
• Exchange student at University of Wisconsin, Madison (2014-2015)

Research Interests: Scientific machine learning, numerical analysis, biophysics, cancer research, computational mathematics, and medical imaging. His work bridges mathematical modeling with clinical applications, particularly in glioblastoma treatment planning and biomolecular simulations.

Awards:

• Keynote speaker at WCCM 2024 for cancer progression modeling
• UCI Systems Biology Opportunity Award (2024)
• Rising Star speaker at UCI Center for Complex Biological Systems Retreat (2024)
• NSF Data Science Conference travel grant (2023)
• Powell Dissertation Award (UCSD, 2022)

Grants & Collaborations: Involved in interdisciplinary projects combining physics-informed neural networks, numerical methods, and clinical data for personalized cancer treatment. Active in collaborations with institutions like École Polytechnique and Bjoern Menze's lab at UCI.

Labs & Teams: Leads computational projects in mathematical oncology and biomolecular modeling, leveraging tools like Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) and level set methods for interface problems.