About the crazy author of this website..



Hi~! I finally got around to updating this part of my webpage.. the old one was written way back in like 2001 O_o. Since then, I've changed a lot.

My name is David Yu Zhang (Dave to all of my friends), I am currently a grad student in the CNS department of Caltech. I am working in Professor Erik Winfree's lab, and have been since Spring 2001. A short version of my CV is here. A copy of my personal statement that I wrote for fellowship applications is here.


Affliations. I am a proud member of the following organizations:

2006 Hertz Fellow.
1999 RSI alumnus.

My current research agenda is as follows:

1. To develop reliable isothermal enzyme-free DNA-based detection systems based on exponential amplification.
2. To demonstrate control of non-trivial in vitro feedback circuits, such as an autonomous oscillator.
3. To integrate work on nucleic acid logic gates with amplification mechanisms for in situ or in vivo marking.


If you are interested in my crazy fleeting thoughts as they occur to me, check out my rants page. If you are interested in collaborating with me on research projects, please see my active projects list

I have a caring family, composed of Dad, Mom, Wendy, and me.



I have an *awesome* girlfriend named Sherry.



My personality fluctuates from ENTP to INFJ, so the only really consistent part of me is that I'm Intuitive. On Enneagrams, I usually score as Type III (Achiever), Type VII (Enthusiast), or Type VIII (Challenger). (Last took 4 Sep 2006, from Similar Minds, 78%/78%/90% in 3/7/8.) An undirected self-inventory of traits reveals the following:
Impulsive
Creative
Versatile
Aggressive
Stubborn
Militant
Loyal
Conservative
Elitist
Independent
Idealistic
Cheerful
Forward
Forgiving
Bimodal perfectionist/sloppy


I've used a number of aliases in the past. Recently, these have been whittled down to two: daveyzhang and ghostaxe.


I'm one of those people who's decent at a whole bunch of things, but not really spectacular at anything. Things I'm not terrible at include:
Taekwondo
Hapkido
Marksmanship
Badminton
Table Tennis
Diplomacy (the board game)
Programming
Cooking (mostly Chinese foods)
Embellishing stories
Drawing comics
Chinese chess
Go
Normal chess
Scrabble


I have been to the following places (and stayed for, say, at least a week in each):
Shanghai, China
Beijing, China
Hefei, China
New York City, NY
Kansas City, KS
Galveston, TX
Boston, MA
Los Angeles, CA
San Fransisco, CA
Oxford, England
Ontario, Canada
Seoul, South Korea

Some funny stories that happened through my years of life: (details will be filled in later ^^ ..or you could just ask me about them)

State Science Olympiad and Strip Poker (1999)
Impersonating James Hsi at National Science Knowledge Bowl (1999)
Marshmellow Optimization at RSI (1999)
Mr. IQ at SMS (2000)
How to Cook Dumplings.. I mean, Tea Eggs (2000)
First Drunk Experience, with Seasame Soup (2000)
Crashing into Avery at 5mph (2001)
Second Drunk Experience and Lab Report (2001)
Da Bomb Pepper Sauce (2001)
Third Drunk Experience.. Steve the Pre-pre-frosh and Hospitalization! (2001)
Shanghai Subway (2002)
Erik's Movie-Producer Friend and the Extras Roles (2003)
Homeless! (Summer 2003)
Watermelon Chopping and RSI 2004 (2004)
First Kayaking Experience (2004)
Oxford Graveyard Cultists (2004)
Oxford Abestos Cleaning (2005)
Stolen Passport in England and Bus Bombings (2005)
Erik and the Korean schoolgirls (2006)
Trip to San Fran with Rob (Eureka Theater and Asia SF, 2006)
Dave Kebab at Hertz Retreat (2006)
Scaring Two-Year-Old Girls (Sonia's Prof's kids, 2006)
Dave the Morgul Being (Halloween, 2006)
34 eurocents in Pompeii (travelling with Rob and Matthew, 2007)