Curriculum vitae

Work Experience

• Enveda Biosciences, Platform Chemistry Intern, (May 2025 to August 2025)
• Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute at Gettysburg College, Summer Research Fellowship, (Summer 2018 and 2019)
• Gettysburg College Chemistry, Research Assistant, (Jan 2018 to May 2021)
• Gettysburg College Residential Life Office, Resident Coordinator, (Sep 2020 to May 2021)
• Gettysburg College Residential Life Office, Resident Assistant, (Sep 2018 to May 2020)

Education

• State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. (Expected May 2026)
  • Ph.D. Computational Chemistry, Bio Simulation Lab
  • Advisor: Hung T. Nguyen
• Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA. (2017-2021)
  • B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
  • Advisor: Tim Funk
  • Thesis: “Synthesis of cyanuric chloride-based synthetic lipids”

Publications

(1) Lipika Baidya; Zhang, H.; Nguyen T. H. Why PAR is not RNA: Ion Atmosphere, Bridging Interactions, and Ion-induced Structural Collapse. biorxiv. pdf

(2) Zhang, H.; Maity, H.; Nguyen T. H. Temperature-Dependent Ion Migration Underlies Sequence-Specific RNA Collapse. biorxiv. pdf

(3) Maity, H.; Zhang, H.; Thirumalai, D.; Nguyen, H. T. RNA Structural Complexity Dictates Its Ion Atmosphere. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2025, 8393–8402. pdf

(4) Zhang, H.; Fang, M.; Lin, Q. Photo-Activatable Reagents for Bioorthogonal Ligation Reactions. Top Curr Chem (Z) 2023, 382 (1), 1. pdf

(5) Fang, M.; Kumar, G. S.; Racioppi, S.; Zhang, H.; Rabb, J. D.; Zurek, E.; Lin, Q. Hydrazonyl Sultones as Stable Tautomers of Highly Reactive Nitrile Imines for Fast Bioorthogonal Ligation Reaction. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145 (18), 9959–9964. pdf

Presentations

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Coarse-grained Simulation of ssRNA. Oral Presentation. MDAnalysis UGM, Tucson, AZ, Nov 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Temperature-Dependent Ion Migration Underlies Sequence-Specific RNA Collapse. Poster Presentation. Rustbelt RNA Conference, Huron, Ohio, Oct 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Ion-dependent Structural Ensemble and Phase Separation Propensity of Single-stranded RNA. Poster Presentation. Academic Excellence Celebration, Buffalo, NY, May 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Coarse-grained Simulation of RNA. Invited Lecture. Molecular Dynamics Simulations (Prof. Viviana Monje), Buffalo, NY, April 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Ion-dependent Structural Ensembles and Phase Separation of Single-stranded RNA. Oral Presentation. Buffalo RNA Group, Buffalo, NY, March 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Ion-dependent Structural Ensembles and Phase Separation of Single-stranded RNA. Poster Presentation. Biophysical Society Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, Feb 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Ion-driven RNA Condensate Simulation. Poster Presentation. Biophysical Society Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, Feb 2025.

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Ion-dependent Structural Ensemble of Single-stranded RNA. Poster Presentation. New York State RNA Conference, Canandaigua, NY, Oct 2024. (Best Poster Award.)

• Zhang, H.; Nguyen, H.T. Parameterization of Coarse-grained ssRNA Force Field. Poster Presentation. Buffalo Graduate Student Symposium, Buffalo, NY, May 2024.

Teaching

• Computational Chemistry (Spring 2025)
• Organic Chemistry (Spring 2024)
• Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences (Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024)
• Honors Organic Chemistry (Fall 2022)
• General Chemistry (Fall 2021, Fall 2025)

Awards

• Academic Excellence Award, State University of New York (Spring 2025)
• John B. Zinn Chemistry Research Award, Gettysburg College (Spring 2021)