 | Dr Binzheng ZHANG Assistant Professor of Department of Earth Sciences
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Q: What do you think are your most significant research accomplishments, and what has been the impact of your research?
A: My research focuses on studying the dynamics of planetary space environments, including the terrestrial planets, gas giants and their moons (ice giants are on my list for the future). I am a computational physicist (or geophysicist to be more accurate) working on large-scale system dynamics using the world's most powerful supercomputers. Basically we ‘create’ a virtual space environment in powerful supercomputers for scientists and engineers to perform research and development. Hence, my most significant research accomplishment would be the development of a high-performance computing-based, multi-physics, general-purposed code called ‘GAMERA’ for the community to study planetary space environment research.
The impact of my research is difficult to quantify, but GAMERA is being used by groups all over the world. For example, teams at the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are using GAMERA as the backbone of an integrated global model to focus on their geospace research on magnetic super storms. The Department of Physics & Astronomy at Johns Hopkins uses it to simulate the space environment of Mercury. A Venus model is being developed at the University of Science and Technology of China in collaboration with scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Models for gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) are now used by groups at the University of Alaska, University of Colorado and Caltech to study planetary space environments. These are namely some of our key research collaborators at the moment.
Q: Please give a brief description of 1 - 2 ongoing research projects that best reflect your visions in the scientific field.
A: One of the most interesting research projects I am working on right now is to simulate the space environment of the gas giant Jupiter, aka the Jovian magnetosphere. This is a very challenging task because the Jovian magnetosphere is gigantic - which occupies approximately 1/3 of the whole sky if we could see the magnetic fields with our naked eyes. Thus, it requires a fine design of the numerical algorithms and computational grids to be able to resolve the structures that are important for understanding. On the other hand, this kind of system is multi-scale and requires a fusion of both physics theories and applied math, together with advanced scientific computing techniques. The model will be used in facilitating the understanding of data from the ongoing mission Juno. Moreover, we expect to contribute to China's gas giant exploration project in the near future by providing theoretical estimations for their mission design, science questions and more.
Q: What is the most important question you want to address?
A: As a space plasma physicist who is also interested in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the most fascinating question I'd like to address is whether we can use basic plasma theory (e.g. MHD) to simulate the whole solar system. Though my research scope focuses mainly inside the heliosphere, I would like to look into this question as it forms our basic foundation for deep space mission design with which one can tell where to go and what to explore using theory and algorithms.
Q: Can you give an example of your translational work?
A: So one recent example is through collaborating with the Juno team. Our recent paper published in the journal Science Advances suggests that the polar region of Jupiter is likely threaded by closed magnetic field lines, which is completely different from the terrestrial examples. The simulation results were also consistent with observations. Thus with the extension of the Juno mission, one of the main research topics shifted to explore the unusual magnetic field topology and the associated aurora and space plasma processes. This showcases exactly the kind of contribution that I've being expecting to have to the community.
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years/ten years? What do you want to accomplish the most?
A: I'm always trying to extend the application of the GAMERA code, and always interested in doing something new and exciting - that's the core of space science, i.e. to explore. So in five years, I hope to be able to set up models for studying the space environment of Mars, which is much harder and beyond the simple theory of MHD. For me, the most important accomplishment is as an educator since I'm also a teacher and I love teaching, so if I could be very effective in training the next generation of young space physicists, that's probably what means the most to me.
As an educator who loves to teach, my most important and meaningful accomplishment in the future would be to effectively train the next generation of young space physicists
Q: What are the challenges you are facing?
A: The biggest challenge for us right now is the capability of supercomputers. Though researchers wish to have higher and higher resolving power, it is limited by the computational resource available at the moment.
Q: Who has influenced you the most?
A: That would be my PhD advisor - William LOTKO, a distinguished Emeritus Professor from Dartmouth as well as Professor John Lyon from Dartmouth, from whom I learned all these incredible skills of computational physics.
Q: How would you go about motivating yourself when you are going through a low point?
A: When I feel like at a low point, which happens once a while, I take a break and go for a road trip with friends and/or family to place such as Colorado, Utah, Alaska, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet. The beautiful scenes always remind me that not taking myself seriously is probably a good idea.
Q: Can you tell us more about your research group? What are the roles and the missions?
A: My group consists of four graduate students and one postdoc, each of them are working on problems from different planets/moons. Despite seemingly like isolated topics, they can actually learn a lot from each other.