Wenjing Zhang, Ph.D. Associate Professor

Wenjing Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Texas Tech University. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario in 2014. Her research applies nonlinear dynamics and bifurcation theory to problems in mathematical biology, with an emphasis on in-host disease modeling and mathematical epidemiology. Her work spans the within-host dynamics of HIV, tuberculosis, monkeypox, influenza A virus, and cancer immunotherapy, as well as population-level models of cholera, Zika, and COVID-19, and she frequently complements deterministic dynamical-systems analysis with stochastic approaches such as continuous-time Markov chains, multitype branching processes, and stochastic differential equations. Recurring themes in her work include disease recurrence and relapse–remission dynamics, autoimmune disease, predator–prey and population dynamics, and, more recently, population bottleneck effects on the maintenance of viral diversity, and optimal control and scientific machine learning for therapy design. Her research has been supported by the Simons Foundation. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8779-5106

Research Interests

Mathematical Biology; Nonlinear Dynamics and Bifurcation Theory; In-Host Disease Modeling; Mathematical Epidemiology; Stochastic Modeling of Infectious Diseases (Branching Processes, Markov Chains, SDEs); Immunology and Autoimmune Disease Dynamics; Cancer Immunotherapy Modeling; Predator–Prey and Population Dynamics; Viral Diversity and Transmission Bottlenecks; Optimal Control and Scientific Machine Learning

Education

Ph.D., University of Western Ontario