Zheng Zhang

I do physics and cosmology (and ask a lot of questions about the Universe)

A Letter to The Guardian on the STFC Funding Crisis

February 26, 2026

I am a postdoctoral researcher in cosmology working in Manchester. A shortened version of this letter was published in The Guardian. Here is the letter in its entirety.

What I’m doing now

I work at the intersection of observational and theoretical cosmology, with a focus on 21cm line intensity mapping — tracing cosmic structure and the Epoch of Reionization through the neutral hydrogen signal. I develop methods that are robust to the real complexity of radio data: Bayesian calibration and mapping pipelines, perturbative foreground models, and surrogate frameworks for fast inference. I also model astrophysical foregrounds — spinning dust emission and the radio synchrotron background excess — both as science in their own right and as contaminants to be understood. On the theoretical side, I’m drawn to stochastic field theory, topological defects, and the quantum-classical transition.

Life and Education Journey

I am currently (Nov 2023 -) a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Manchester, working with Phil Bull and Jens Chluba. Previously, I completed my PhD in Physics of the Universe at the Astroparticle and Cosmology (APC) Laboratory, Université Paris Cité, jointly with the École Normale Supérieure (ENS, Paris), from November 2020 to October 2023 in Paris, France.

Before that, I earned an MSc in Physics from Brown University (2018–2020, Rhode Island, US) and a BSc in Applied Physics from Shanghai University (2014–2018, Shanghai, China). My earlier education includes high school in Hai’an and primary school in Sunzhuang village (2002–2014). I was born in 1996.

Publications

Here is a list of my published and submitted papers to date. Also see my profiles on Google Scholar, arXiv, and ORCID.

11 | 2026

Joint Bayesian calibration and map-making for intensity mapping experiments

Z. Zhang, P. Bull, M. Santos, A. Nasirrudin

RASTI (2026); arXiv

10 | 2026

Spectral Signatures of Spinning Dust from Grain Ensembles in Diverse Environments: A Combined Theoretical and Observational Study

Z. Zhang, J. Chluba, R. Cepeda-Arroita, J. A. Rubino-Martin

MNRAS (2026); arXiv

9 | 2026

A general polynomial emulator for cosmology via moment projection

Z. Zhang

MNRAS, 545, 1 (2026); arXiv

8 | 2025

Spectral Properties of Anomalous Microwave Emission in 144 Galactic Clouds

Cepeda-Arroita, R. et al. (incl. Z. Zhang)

A&A (2025); arXiv

7 | 2025

SpyDust: an improved and extended implementation for modeling spinning dust radiation

Z. Zhang, J. Chluba

JCAP, 03, 038 (2025); arXiv

6 | 2025

RHINO: A large horn antenna for detecting the 21cm global signal

Bull, P. et al. (incl. Z. Zhang)

RASTI, 046, 4 (2025); arXiv

5 | 2024

Disentangling the anisotropic radio sky: Fisher forecasts for 21 cm arrays

Z. Zhang, P. Bull, K. A. Glasscock

MNRAS, 530, 3 (2024); arXiv

4 | 2022

Hydrogen Intensity and Real-Time Analysis Experiment: 256-element array status and overview

HIRAX Collaboration (incl. Z. Zhang)

JATIS, 8, 1 (2022); arXiv

3 | 2021

A new MWA limit on the 21 cm power spectrum at redshifts~ 13–17

MWA Collaboration (incl. Z. Zhang)

MNRAS, 505, 4 (2021); arXiv

2 | 2020

Deep multiredshift limits on Epoch of Reionization 21 cm power spectra from four seasons of Murchison Widefield Array observations

MWA Collaboration (incl. Z. Zhang)

MNRAS, 493, 4 (2020); arXiv

1 | 2020

The impact of tandem redundant/sky-based calibration in MWA Phase II data analysis

Z. Zhang, J. C. Pober, W. Li, B. J. Hazelton, M. F. Morales

PASA, 37 (2020); arXiv

Research Codes

Selected codes I have developed or contributed to, many used in the papers below.

MomentEmu

A general polynomial emulator for cosmology via moment projection

arXiv

MC-post

Tools for global sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo integration

arXiv

SpyDust

A python package for modeling spinning dust radiation

arXiv

Hydra-TOD

A Gibbs sampling method for single-dish TOD gain calibration and map-making

limTOD

A Time-Ordered Data Simulator for Ground-Based Measurements

TIBEC

A package for Beam Simulation in Cosmological Coordinates

comat

Highly optimized real symmetric covariance matrix operations

More about me

Bio

Pronouns: He/Him
Title: PhD in Physics of the Universe (DOCTORAT PHYSIQUE DE L’UNIVERS)
Marital Status: Married
Nationality: Chinese
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Profile: Astrophysicist and cosmologist; self-proclaimed “citizen of the Universe.”

Scientific Ancestry

Below is my academic tree, illustrating the lineage from doctoral supervisors to students.

flowchart LR PD["Paul Dirac"] --> DS["Dennis W. Sciama"] EF["Enrico Fermi"] --> ST["Sam Treiman"] JS["John Simpson"] --> ST DS --> MR["Martin Rees"] ST --> SW["Steven Weinberg"] MR --> NK["Nick Kaiser"] SW --> JP["John Preskill"] JP --> MB["Martin Bucher"] NK & MB --> ZZ(["Zheng Zhang"]) classDef anc fill:#F5F7FA,stroke:#A2DED0,stroke-width:1.5px,color:#2A2F36 classDef me fill:#A2DED0,stroke:#4aada0,stroke-width:2.5px,color:#1a2026,font-weight:bold class PD,EF,JS,DS,MR,ST,SW,NK,JP,MB anc class ZZ me

Students

Tong Lu (BSc, Manchester, 2025-)
Pranav Odugoudar (MScR, Manchester, 2024-)

Biological Ancestry

I can’t go back too far. My grandfather was adopted. The man who adopted him, my great-grandfather, was a tofu maker/seller in the village, but unfortunately the craft was not passed on.

The Home Team

Our little family includes my wife and myself, our Bengal cat, Youzi, along with two cherished baobab trees, Jumbo and Zhuangzhuang, which we brought with us from Paris to Manchester. While living in the US, I raised a loving German Shepherd named Summer, who now enjoys life with my parents in my faraway hometown.