PROF. ZHANG, JIAN
Professor
3917 8248
JL311
Zhang's primary research focuses on the growth and evolution, as well as the deformational behavior of continental crust and their geodynamic links to pre-plate and plate-tectonic regimes of the early Earth. Zhang also studies the deformational history of orogenic belts spanning the Archean (>2.5 billion years ago) through the Phanerozoic, with interests ranging from microscale structures to lithosphere-scale tectonics, and from field geological mapping to numerical modeling. His research interest in economic geology deals with structural controls and modifications of the gold deposits in deformed regions. His research areas include the North China Craton, Slave and Superior Cratons in North America, eastern Pilbara Craton in Australia, Central Asia Orogenic Belt in China and Limpopo Belt in South Africa.
Zhang received his BSc (2000) and MSc (2003) from Peking University and PhD from The University of Hong Kong in 2007. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Waterloo (Canada) and lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong between 2008 and 2015. He joined Sun Yat-sen University as a full professor in 2016. He was awarded Young Scholar 1000 Talents Plan (2016), Pearl River Talent Plan (2017) and NSFC Award for Distinguished Young Scholar (2020). He joined The University of Hong Kong under the HKU100 Scholar Programme in 2023. He is now the Editor-in-Chief of Precambrian Research (Elsevier).
EASC2402
Field and Laboratory Methods
EASC2409
Regional field studies
EASC3404
Structural Geology
SCNC3111
Frontiers of science honours seminar course
- Shang, K., Zhang, J.*, Wang, Z. C., Cawood, I., Cui Y.W., Li M., Chang R.H., Shen Y.A., Zhao G.C.*, 2026. Coupled sulfur-silicon isotopes reveal supracrustal origin of Archean continents. Nature Communications 17, 4203.
- Liu J., Palin R.M., Mitchell R.N., Liu Z.H., Zhang J., Li Z.S., Cheng C.Q., Zhang H.X., 2024, Archaean multi-stage magmatic underplating drove formation of continental nuclei in the North China Craton. Nature Communications 15, 6231.
- Miao Y.Z., Zhang J.*, Schulmann K.*, Guy A., Jiang Y.D., Sun M., Zhang S.H., Wang S., 2023. Crustal-Scale Disharmonic Structural Pattern of West Junggar: Unveiling a Permian Indentation of Junggar Block Into Northern Kazakhstan Orocline. Tectonics 42, e2022TC007689.
- Yu C., Yang T., Zhang J.*, Zhao G., Cawood P.A., Yin, C.Q., 2022, Coexisting diverse P–T–t paths during Neoarchean Sagduction: Insights from numerical modeling and applications to the eastern North China Craton. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 586, 117529.
- Zhao C., Zhang J.*, Zhao G., Yin C., Chen G., Liu J., Liu X., Chen W., 2022. Kinematics and Structural evolution of the Anziling Dome-and-Keel architecture in east China: Evidence of Neoarchean vertical tectonism in the North China Craton. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 134 (7-8): 2115-2129.