Zhenkai Zhang

Zhenkai Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing, Clemson University. Previously, he held an academic position at Texas Tech University (2019–2021). His research focuses on computer systems security, cyber-physical systems, and hardware vulnerabilities. He holds a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University (supervised by Prof. Xenofon Koutsoukos), an M.S. from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a B.S. from Beijing Institute of Technology.

His research interests include GPU security, side-channel attacks, memory corruption exploits, and defensive techniques leveraging physical layer information. Recent work involves GPU cache attacks, DNN backdoor insertion, and electromagnetic side-channel exploitation.

• Received "Distinguished Reviewer" award at CCS'24.
• Notable contributions include Graphics Peeping Unit (Oakland 2022), Leveraging EM for Rowhammer Detection (Oakland 2020), and BitJabber (HOST 2020).

Current Ph.D. advisees include Hongyue Jin and Fatemeh Moradihaghighi. Alumni Zihao Zhan and Sisheng Liang now hold academic positions. Active grants include NSF projects on rowhammer defenses and secure CPS control.

Professional activities include TPC roles at CCS, Oakland, and EuroS&P, plus editorial and organizational roles in security conferences.