Zhang is an elected member of US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Academia Sinica (National Academy in Republic of China), and Fellow of five scientific societies: APS (The American Physical Society), OSA (The Optical Society of America), AAAS (The American Association for the Advancement of Science), SPIE (The International Society of Optical Engineering), and ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers).

Zhang’s current research focuses on nano-scale science and technology, materials physics, photonics and bio-technologies. He has published over 240 journal papers, including over 50 publications in Science, Nature series, PNAS and Physical Review Letters. He has given over 280 Keynote, Plenary and Invited talks at international conferences and institutions. He served as a Co-Chair of NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Annual Grantee Conferences in 2004 and 2005, Chair of Technical Program of IEEE 2nd International Conference on Micro and Nano Engineered and Molecular Systems in 2007, and current Chair of Academic Advisory Board for Research Center for Applied Science (RCAS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC.