Dongda Zhang

Dr. Dongda Zhang is a 125th Anniversary Fellow and Associate Professor in Process Systems Engineering and Machine Learning at the School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, and a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellow in Digital Manufacturing at Unilever’s Port Sunlight R&D Centre. His research focuses on advancing artificial intelligence and process systems engineering for scientific knowledge discovery, intelligent design, and sustainable chemical and biochemical manufacturing.

He holds a BSc from Tianjin University and an MSc with Distinction from Imperial College London. He began his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2013 and completed his doctoral research within two years, graduating early following special university approval for early thesis submission. In 2017, he was awarded a prestigious Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at Cambridge. He subsequently joined the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering in 2018, alongside an appointment as Honorary Research Fellow at the Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering, Imperial College London, before joining the University of Birmingham through its flagship strategic recruitment initiative. Dr. Zhang serves as an Associate Editor of Digital Chemical Engineering, an Editorial Board Member of Biochemical Engineering Journal, a member of the BBSRC Pool of Experts in Bioprocess Systems Engineering, and a member of the Industrial Management Board of the Centre for Process Analytics and Control Technology (CPACT).

His research contributions have received international recognition through several awards, including the Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award (2024) for his pioneering work in applying hybrid modelling techniques to bioprocess engineering, becoming the first academic based in Europe to receive this award since its inception in 2009. He was also awarded the IChemE Hutchison Medal (2023) for his contributions to AI-enabled product quality control in the chemical process industries and received a Highly Commended distinction for the IChemE Nicklin Medal (2022).