Prof Zhang is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Sexual Health Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW.

He completed his Bachelor's and Masters's in Mathematics at the University of Sydney in 2002 and his PhD in Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 2006.

Prof Zhang is a very experienced epidemiologist and health economist. He has rich cross-disciplinary research experience in mathematics, epidemiology, artificial intelligence and health economics. To date, he has published 382 publications (367 papers, 6 book chapters, 9 technical reports), 254 of which are first/senior authored. He regularly publishes in leading journals (Lancet HIV, Lancet GH, Lancet ID, Lancet RH, Journal of Hepatology, Diabetes Care, Diabetologia, Genetics in Medicine, International Journal of Epidemiology and Journal of Infections). His papers have been cited more than 12,000 times. He presented 46 times at national/international HIV/STI conferences and 28 invited talks.

He established the China-Australia Joint Research Center for Infectious Diseases in 2019, which facilitates a strong collaboration in education and research between Monash University and Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. The centre has since published >150 papers and attracted $3.56m in grants.

His research has attracted a total of $23.3m in international, governmental and philanthropic grants. He has supervised/is supervising 82 researchers/postdocs/postgraduates: 12 postdocs/above (6 completed), 28 PhD students (11 completed) and 42 master students (23 completed). Prof Zhang was awarded China's Key Medical Development Award 2020 by Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, the 2021 Australasian Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance Innovation Award and the 2025 Clunis Ross Innovation Award by the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

He has advised for Technical Working Group for Needle-Syringe Programs Evaluation in EECA at the World Bank (2013), the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for Viral Hepatitis at WHO (2014-2019), the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee for Viral Hepatitis and at WHO Western Pacific (2018) and Immunization and Vaccines Related Implementation Research Advisory Committee at WHO Geneva (2022). He is a founding member of China's National Cervical Cancer Control Committee (since 2020) and the Working Committee of the Chinese Medical Association for Promoting the Elimination of Viral Hepatitis, China (since 2022).