Professor Zhen Yang


Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School

School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology

Lishui Road 2199, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, 518055

E-mail: zyang@pku.edu.cn

Zhen Yang studied medicinal chemistry at Shenyang College of Pharmacy and earned a Ph.D. at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1992 under the guidance of Professor H. N. C. Wong. He carried out postdoctoral research on natural product synthesis with Professor K. C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, USA and joined its faculty in 1995. In 1998, he moved to the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School as an institute fellow before returning to China as a professor at Peking University in 2001. Since 2008, he has served as the founding Dean of the School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. He actively pursues the total syntheses of bioactive natural products and chemical biology research.


EDUCATION

1989 1992

Ph.D., Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, with Professor Henry N. C. Wong

1983 1986

M.S., Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Shenyang College of Pharmacy, with Professor Qihuai Chen

1978 1982

B.A., Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Shenyang College of Pharmacy


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2011-Curr.

Professor of Chemistry, Peking University-Tsinghua University Joint Center for Life Sciences (PTCLS)

2008-Curr.

Professor of Chemistry, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Peking University

2002 – Curr.

Professor of Chemistry, Dept. of Chemistry, Peking University

2005 2008

Director of Chemistry, XTL biopharmaceutical Inc. NY

2001 2005

Co-founders and Director of Chemistry, VivoQuest Inc. NY

1998 2001

Institute Fellow, Dept. of Cell biology, Harvard Medical School

1995 1998

Assistant professor, Dept. of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute

1992 1995

Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute, with Professor K. C. Nicolaou


HONORS AND AWARDS

2000

The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Investigator Award (abroad), NSF of China

2004

The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Investigator Award, NSF of China

2005

Eli Lilly Scientific Excellence Award (China)

2008

The Asian Core Program Lectureship Award, the Asian Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry programs

2009

Baogang Distinguished Teaching Award of Peking University

2010

Wuxi Pharma Life Science Excellence Award (Golden Metal)

2013

“Zhou Weishan” Synthetic Creative Work Award, Chemical Society of China

2016

Second Prize of National Natural Science Award, China

2018

Shenzhen mayor Award, Shenzhen

2023

Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering, RAE


EDITORIAL AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

2007

Advisory Board Member, Chinese Journal of Organic Chemistry

2010

Advisory Board, Combinatorial Science of ACS

2010

Academic Board, State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry 

2011

Advisory Board Member, Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis of Wiley-VCH

2011

Advisory Board Member, Natural Products and Bioprospecting of Springer

2011

Advisory Board Member, MedChemComm of RSC Publishing

2014

Editorial Board, National Science Review of Oxford University Press 

2016

Advisory Board, ACS Central Science

2017

Editorial Board Member, National Science Review of Science Press

2017

Advisory Board Member, ACS Central Science of ACS

2017

Editorial Board Member, Natural Product Report of The Royal Society

2017

Academic Board, State Key Laboratory of Drug Research

2022

Editor in Chief, Tetrahedron Letters of Elsevier