LAD Awards 2025 Dissertation Prize to Yang Zhang

This post is adapted from a Laboratory Astrophysics Division press release:

Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD) is pleased to announce the recipient of its 2025 Dissertation Prize, given to an individual who has recently completed an outstanding theoretical or experimental doctoral dissertation in laboratory astrophysics. For the year 2025 the prize goes to Dr. Yang Zhang for his thesis Understanding the Plasma Universe through Laboratory Experiments and Related Models. Dr. Zhang earned his PhD at the California Institute of Technology, working with Professor Paul M. Bellan. He is now a NASA Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellow jointly appointed at Princeton University and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

Dr. Zhang is being cited for “laboratory experiments where magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities couple to non-MHD physics that then produce hard X-rays, thereby demonstrating a credible mechanism for production of energetic particles as observed in many astrophysical contexts; he is additionally recognized for using a numerical simulation inspired by laboratory experiments to show that collisions between charged and neutral particles produce angular momentum transport in accretion disks.” His thesis work addresses two foundational challenges in astrophysics: understanding the mechanisms behind solar flare generation and resolving the angular momentum transport in accretion disks. For more information about Zhang and his work, please see the full LAD press release.

The LAD Dissertation Prize includes a cash award, a framed certificate, and an invited lecture by the recipient at a LAD meeting.