Zhenyu Zhang

Assistant Professor
zzy@pku.edu.cn
38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Peking University

Personal profile

Zhenyu Zhang, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, and tenure-track Assistant Professor, is affiliated with the Department of Global Health, Peking University School of Public Health. He completed a joint PhD training program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2014–2015) and conducted postdoctoral research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (2016–2021). His research focuses on the health impacts of air pollution and climate change, with expanded work in climate adaptation, life-cycle carbon emissions, and carbon mitigation pathways in the healthcare sector.

Over the past five years, Dr. Zhang has published more than 40 first- or corresponding-author articles, with an h-index of 24 and over 2,200 citations. He has established a comprehensive and internationally recognized research portfolio in extreme weather events, compound meteorological exposures, and climate-related health risk assessment. He currently serves as Associate Editor of BMC Medicine, Statistical Editor for JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions and JACC: Advances, Youth Editorial Board Member of Chinese Journal of Public Health Management, Member of the Global Health Terminology Subcommittee of the National Committee on Public Health Terminology, and Senior Expert of the Green Hospital Professional Committee of the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency. He is also a contributing author to the Fifth National Assessment Report on Climate Change.

Main research directions

Dr. Zhang’s research integrates global climate change, air pollution, global health, exposure modeling, and traditional epidemiology. His key research interests include:

1. Assessing the impacts of global climate change on infectious disease incidence and transmission, integrating epidemiology, atmospheric science, and advanced statistical modeling to address questions relevant to clinical practice and policymaking.

2. Environmental epidemiology, particularly the acute and chronic health effects of particulate matter pollution across populations and disease outcomes.

3. Healthcare decarbonization, including greenhouse gas accounting, mitigation potential assessment, and low-carbon transition pathways for the health sector under China’s dual-carbon goals.

4. Climate vulnerability and resilience assessment, quantitatively characterizing population- and region-specific sensitivity to climate-related health risks and informing national and regional climate adaptation planning.

Representative scientific research projects

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China (PI) — Impacts and mechanisms of rapidly alternating drought–flood events on regional disaster resilience and population health (2026.01–2029.12)

2. Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Co-Investigator) — China–ASEAN Public Health Science and Technology Cooperation Center (2023–present)

3. Shenzhen Institute of Clean Technology Research (Co-Investigator) — 1.5°C Active Health Management and Practice: Public Health Research (2024.08–2029.08)

4. Key Laboratory of Emergency Medical Rescue Technology and Equipment, Ministry of Emergency Management (PI) — Carbon emissions assessment and mitigation pathways for pre-hospital emergency services (2025.01–2026.12)

5. Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (PI) — Environmental pollutants, climate change, and thyroid function in pregnant women (2024.07–2025.12)

6. Key Laboratory of Coal Environment and Disease, Ministry of Education (PI) — Multi-scale data–driven carbon emissions estimation and drivers in the healthcare industry (2024.10–2025.12)

7. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (PI) — Research on the current status and challenges of China’s “Toilet Revolution” (2023.09–2025.02)

8. China General Technology • Baoshihua Medical (PI) — Prospective study on the evaluation and optimization of enterprise-level healthcare quality management (2023.05–2024.12)

10 representative papers

1. Zhang Z, et al. Long-Term Exposure to Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Chronic Rhinosinusitis in Non-Allergic Patients. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2021.

2. Zhang Z, et al. Exposure to Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Anosmia. JAMA Network Open. 2021.

3. Zhang Z, et al. Association between particulate matter air pollution and lung cancer. Thorax. 2020.

4. Zhang Z, et al. Long-term particulate matter exposure and onset of depression in middle-aged adults. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2019.

5. Zhang Z, et al. Particulate matter exposure and self-reported hypertension: Findings from the Nurses’ Health Study. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2016.

6. Chen J, Zhang Z (corresponding author), et al. Temperature variability and global meningitis incidence. Environment International. 2023.

7. Zhou S, Zhang Z, et al. Drinking water quality, mental health, and the modifying role of diet. BMC Medicine. 2024.

8. Li W, Zhang Z, et al. Long-term PM2.5 exposure and periodontitis. Journal of Clinical Periodontology. 2024.

9. Shi Y, Zhang Z, et al. Divergent impacts of air pollution on cardio–kidney–metabolic progression: Evidence from China and the U.K. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 2025.

10. Wang T, Zhang Z, et al. Causal link between humid heatwaves and ischemic heart disease: Hospitalizations and economic burden across 955 counties in China. BMC Medicine. 2025.