ZHANG Liming
Associate Professor
Ph.D.
Tel: 010-62796961
Email: liming_zhang@tsinghua.edu.cn
Educational Background
● Sep 2001 – Jul 2006: University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Ph.D. in Nuclear and Particle Physics
● Nov 2003 – Jan 2006: High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Japan, Joint Ph.D. Training
● Sep 1997 – Jul 2001: University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), B.S. in Physics
Work Experience
● Aug 2024 – Present: Tsinghua University, Department of Engineering Physics, Tenured Associate Professor
● Oct 2019 – Jul 2024: Tsinghua University, Department of Engineering Physics, Tenure-Track Associate Professor
● Oct 2014 – Sep 2019: Tsinghua University, Department of Engineering Physics, Associate Research Professor
● Oct 2008 – Feb 2009: CERN, Visiting Scholar
● Nov 2006 – Sep 2014: Syracuse University (USA), Department of Physics, Postdoctoral Researcher
Teaching work
● Undergraduate: Introduction to High Energy Physics
● Graduate: Topics in High Energy Physics Experiments, Data Analysis in Particle and Nuclear Physics Experiments, Particle Physics
● Supervision: 7 PhD graduates, Currently supervising 6 PhD students.
Research Field
● Current leader of the Tsinghua University particle physics team within the LHCb collaboration.
● Achieved early breakthroughs in neutral D-meson mixing during Ph.D. (2006), publishing 4 first-author high-impact papers.
● As a core member of Prof. Sheldon Stone's group at Syracuse University (2006-2014), focused on flavor physics, co-authored 23 papers, and led the publication of the first 3 LHCb papers after the experiment's commissioning.
● Joined Tsinghua University in 2014 via a young talent program, becoming a key member of the LHCb group.
● In 2015, played a central role (core analyst) in the discovery of the pentaquark state, proposing and confirming the peak structure as a new particle signal, attracting significant international attention.
● Subsequently led multiple studies in hadron spectroscopy:
o Discovery of fine structure in pentaquark states.
o Observation of evidence for exotic hidden-charm pentaquark states.
o Discovery of tetraquark states Zcs(4000)+ / Zcs(4220)+.
o Observation of the X(3960) resonance structure.
o Discovery of new excited states: charm-strange meson D_s0(2590)+ and bottom baryons Ξ_b(6327)^0 / Ξ_b(6333)^0.
o (Many results published in Physical Review Letters).
● In CP violation studies, pioneered novel methods improving the precision of the φ_s measurement by 30%, maintaining LHCb's international leadership.
Research Situation
● 2024 – 2029: Experimental Study of Exotic Hadronic States, National Key R&D Program of China, Principal Investigator (Project Lead)
● 2017 – 2022: In-depth Study of Pentaquark State Properties, National Key R&D Program of China, Principal Investigator (Task Lead)
Academic Achievements
1. "Improved measurement of CP violation parameters in Bs0 → J/ψK+K− decays in the vicinity of the φ(1020) resonance", Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 051802 (2024), LHCb Collaboration.
2. "Evidence of a J/ψKS0 structure in B0→J/ψφKS0 decays", Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 131901 (2023), LHCb Collaboration.
3. "Observation of a resonant structure near the Ds+Ds− threshold in the B+→ Ds+Ds−K+ decay", Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 071901 (2023), LHCb Collaboration.
4. "Observation of two new excited Ξb0 states decaying to Λb0K−π+", Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 162001 (2022), LHCb Collaboration.
5. "A novel method to test particle ordering and final state alignment in helicity formalism", Chin. Phys. C 45, 063103 (2021), Mengzhen Wang, Yi Jiang, Yinrui Liu, Wenbin Qian, Xiao-Rui Lyu, Liming Zhang.
6. "Observation of new resonances decaying to J/ψK+ and J/ψϕ", Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 082001 (2021), LHCb Collaboration.
7. "Evidence of a J/ψΛ structure and observation of excited Ξ− states in the Ξb− → J/ψΛK− decay", Sci. Bull. 66, 1278 (2021), LHCb Collaboration.
8. "Observation of a new excited Ds+ meson in B0 → D+D−K+π− decays", Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 122002 (2021), LHCb Collaboration.
9. "Isospin amplitudes in Λb0 →J/ψΛ(Σ0) and Ξb0 →J/ψΞ0(Λ) decays", Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 111802 (2020), LHCb Collaboration.
Part-time Academic Job
● 2025 – Present: Editorial Board Member, Discovery Physics.
● 2025 – Present: Editorial Board Member, Symmetry.
● 2025 – Present: Editor, Frontiers of Physics.
● 2023 – 2025: Convener, LHCb "Statistics and Machine Learning" Working Group.
● 2021: Member, LHCb "Outstanding Thesis Award Committee".
● 2019 – 2024: Coordinator (China group), LHCb Real-Time Analysis (RTA) Project.
● 2019 – 2021: Member, LHCb "Speakers' Bureau".
● 2016 – 2018: Convener, LHCb "b-hadron decays to charmonia" Physics Working Group.
Award honors
● 2025: Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (as a member of the LHCb collaboration), Breakthrough Prize Foundation.
● 2023: Capital University Students Summer Social Practice "Youth Serving the Nation" Advanced Worker, Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League.
● 2016: Second "Young Elite Scientist" Award, CAS Center for Excellence in Particle Physics (CCEPP).
● 2006: Third Prize, 4th "Dawn Cup" Young Scientist Paper Award, High Energy Physics Society of China.
● 2006: Director's Award for Excellence, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
