Jennings Zhang

Welcome to my personal website. Its content is a superset of my résumé, plus a sprinkle of ✨personality✨.

• 2024-07-17 — I gave a talk at scientificcomputing.rs. YouTube recording
• 2024-04-15 — I was a student of the Advanced Statistical Methods in Neuroimaging and Genetics" 2-week course at the University Of Utah.
• 2023-11-06 — I went to KubeCon in Chicago, Illinois!
• 2023-07-14 — Lightning talk at "Scientific Computing in Rust 2023." Watch on YouTube.
• 2023-06-23 — OHBM 2023 in Montréal was fun! Photo
• 2023-06-06 — Talk on medical software at the Podman community meeting.
• 2023-01-31 — Interview about scientific computing on hybrid cloud. Watch the interview here.
• 2022-06-19 — My first time in Scotland for OHBM 2022. Pigeons there are much louder.
• 2021-07-26 — Featured in Northeastern University Khoury College news.

My publications can be found on Pubmed. They are mostly about the human fetal subplate zone, a subcortical structure relevant to neuronal migration during brain development. I am also a frequent attendee of the OHBM international conference where I usually talk about ChRIS. Here are some of my posters:

• Jennings Zhang et. al. “Estimation of Subplate Thickness by Surface Deformation.” OHBM 2020
• Lana Vasung, Jennings Zhang, et. al. “Association between the thickness of transient fetal cortical compartments and gene expression.” OHBM 2020
• Lana Vasung, Jennings Zhang, et. al. “Abnormal development of transient fetal zones in mild isolated fetal ventriculomegaly.” OHBM 2022
• Jennings Zhang et. al. “Cyberinfrastructure Enabling Reproducible Model Development.” OHBM 2023

Research interests: first and foremost, I am a proponent of open science, open data, and interoperability. I am exclusively interested in research that is open. My career goals are to explore the role of open-source software in medicine and research.

My current focus is on neuroinformatics and computational medicine, though everything computer science and biology pique my interest. In the past I have dabbled with cancer genomics, bacterial meta-'omics, and comparative scRNA-seq.

Some of my active projects:

• The ChRIS Research Integration System https://chrisproject.org
• Fetal brain MRI volume reconstruction pipeline
• Fetal brain surface mesh extraction
  • White matter surface extraction using marching-cubes
  • Gyrification index-dependent mesh deformation to inner subplate surface
  • Fetal brain MRI surface extraction pipeline

• Rust is my love and passion. I use Python and TypeScript when necessary.
• I use Linux extensively at work and at home. I am in the middle of transitioning from Arch Linux to NixOS.

• Signs that you're a good programmer, and signs that you're a bad programmer
• Quote: Design doesn't have to be new, but it has to be good. Research doesn't have to be good, but it has to be new. -- Paul Graham

• I am learning Wing Chun kung fu. Specifically, Gulao village Pin Sun a.k.a. “turning style” Wing Chun. Please be my training buddy! (I'm willing to commute 1hr near Malden or Boston to come practice with or teach you.)
• Sailing is fun too, I have a red rating at Community Boating.
• Montréal is my favorite city and I hope to live there someday.