Tong Zhu
朱通
Professor of Physical Chemistry, East China Normal University · Shanghai Innovation Institute.
About
Tong Zhu is a Professor at the Department of Chemistry, East China Normal University (ECNU). He received his Ph.D. in 2013 from the State Key Laboratory of Precision Spectroscopy at ECNU, after which he held postdoctoral and faculty positions at ECNU and a visiting scholarship at Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University Shanghai and a doctoral advisor at the Shanghai Innovation Institute.
His research integrates theoretical chemistry with artificial intelligence, focusing on the precise elucidation of chemical reaction dynamics in complex systems. He has developed general neural network potential energy surfaces covering CHON elements, AI-augmented quantum chemistry algorithms, and the open-source ReacNetGenerator software for automated reaction network analysis. He serves as an editor for J. Chem. Inf. Model. and was a recipient of the NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund.
Research Interests
- AI–physics dual-driven simulation methods: neural network potentials, general CHON potentials, and specialized DFT / semi-empirical quantum chemistry algorithms.
- Efficient reaction path search and network analysis: the rotation–translation invariant potential (RTIP) method, transition-state location, and the ReacNetGenerator software.
- Applications: selective covalent inhibitor design, DNA reaction dynamics, and molecular pattern recognition.