Join the lab.

Open positions

My group at the School of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science (人工智能与数据科学学院), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC, 中国科学技术大学), Hefei, works at the intersection of physics, machine learning, and autonomous research systems.

Where things stand right now:

• Master's & PhD — no vacancies at the moment; the current cycle is filled. New positions are expected next year — if you'd like to be considered then, write early and say so.
• Undergraduate research — always welcome, year-round.
• Postdocs — always welcome; get in touch and we'll discuss funding options.

What you'd work on

Three threads, with room to mix and to pick what suits you:

1. Autonomous research — LLM agents that propose hypotheses, run experiments, and write up findings end-to-end. This is the newest and the highest-leverage thread; expect outsized investment here.
2. Physics for AI — long-range order and collective dynamics as a computational paradigm; memcomputing; neuromorphic devices in novel materials.
3. AI for physics — large quantum models for many-body problems; graph neural networks for dynamical-systems modelling, prediction, and control.

The most interesting projects sit on the boundaries between these threads — e.g., agents that drive memcomputing experiments, or quantum-state models trained inside an autonomous research loop. We'll find good projects together.

Who I'm looking for

Backgrounds welcome: physics, applied math, computer science, machine learning, anything in between. Strong programming and a taste for open-ended problems matter more than a particular CV. Curiosity beats polish. Comfort working across disciplines and across the human/machine boundary is a plus.

If you've built something you're proud of — a paper, a piece of code, a project that didn't fit into a class — that's the most useful signal.

How to apply

Email yuanhangzhang@ustc.edu.cn with:

• A short statement of interest — what threads excite you, what you've been working on.
• Your CV.
• One link to representative work — code, a paper, a project write-up.
• (Optional) transcripts.

If you're at USTC, you can also just drop by: my office is B-523, Academic Building No. 1, High-Tech Campus (高新校区1号学科楼B-523).

I read what comes in, but with the volume right now I can't promise a personal reply to every message — please don't take silence as a no. For master's/PhD applicants aiming at next year's openings, an early-interest email now is the most useful step; formal USTC admission channels open later in the cycle.

Next year's openings

Details on next year's master's and PhD positions — how many, timelines, and formal application steps — will land here once they're settled. Until then, the email above is the best channel.