Educational background

● Sep. 2010 – Jul. 2015, Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Technology, Tsinghua University
● Sep. 2006 – Jul. 2010, B.Eng. in Safety Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)

Experience

● Jan 2024 – Present: Assistant Professor, School of Safety Science, Tsinghua University
●Jan 2023 – Dec 2023: Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University
● Jul 2020 – Oct 2022: Lecturer, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
● Oct 2017 – Oct 2022: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
● Nov 2015 – May 2017: Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for Nuclear and Energy Technologies, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
● Oct 2015 – Sep 2017: Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University

Teaching work

●Decision Methodology (Undergraduate course)
● Decision Technologies and Methods in Public Safety (Undergraduate course)
● Artificial Intelligence and Public Safety (Graduate course)
Supervised 3 Ph.D. students and 3 Master's students

Areas of Research Interests

Discipline: Public Safety Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Hazardous Particulates; Environmental Safety; Emergency Technologies and Equipment for Accidents and Disasters
Leakage Dispersion Behavior and Disaster-Inducing Mechanisms of NBC Hazardous Particulates
Conducting systematic studies on the release, migration, and health impacts of radioactive pollutants, bioaerosols, and chemical nanoparticles in complex environments, integrating multi-physics coupled simulations with experimental validation.
Rapid Response and Emergency Handling Technologies and Equipment for Hazardous Chemical Accidents
Focusing on typical hazardous chemical leak scenarios, this research develops rapid assessment techniques, emergency deployment strategies, and integrated multi-level equipment systems to enhance practical emergency response capabilities.
AI-Driven Smart Emergency Monitoring and Decision Support Technologies
Leveraging artificial intelligence methods such as deep learning and reinforcement learning to enable intelligent modeling of disaster evolution, optimization of emergency strategies, and automated decision support.
Data Assimilation and Risk Assessment Based on Multi-Source Data Fusion
Developing an integrated "monitoring–simulation–inversion" framework to achieve high-precision source term reconstruction, environmental propagation forecasting, and quantitative evaluation of health and safety risks.

Research Status

Main Research Focus
Primarily engaged in risk assessment, monitoring, and data assimilation for nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) hazardous particulate matter, as well as research on urban safety and emergency management. Leads projects funded by the National Key R&D Program of China, the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and a joint nuclear emergency management project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the China Scholarship Council (CSC). Participates in collaborative research projects supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) on atmospheric pollution control. Recipient of the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from the China Association of Work Safety.

Serves as a Young Scientist for the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program under the International Science Council, a member of the European Committee for Multicomponent Aerosol Dynamics Modeling, and a junior editorial board member of Emergency Management Science and Technology and Sustainable Horizons. Also serves as a guest editor for the special issue on "Air Pollution and Emergency Management" in the international journal Atmosphere. Published over 50 papers in international journals including Nature Communications, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Journal of Hazardous Materials.

Representative Research Projects
1.Research on Monitoring Deployment Strategies and Capability Assessment for Reducing Uncertainty in Nuclear Emergency Response, National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program), Grant No. 72474116, 2025-01-01 to 2028-12-31, 400,000 RMB, PI
2.Multi-objective Intelligent Emergency Decision Support Technology Based on Large-scale Emergency Models, National Key R&D Program, Grant No. 2024YFC3015504-03, 2025-01 to 2027-12, 400,000 RMB, PI
3.Research on the Transport Evolution and Quantitative Risk of Hazardous Substances, National Youth Talent Program, 2024-01 to 2026-12, 1,000,000 RMB, PI
4.Development and System Integration of Multi-level Equipment for Rapid and Safe Disposal of Typical Hazardous Chemical Leaks, National Key R&D Program, Grant No. 2023YFC3008805, 2023-11 to 2026-10, 3,680,000 RMB, PI
5.Study on the Deposition Patterns of Radioactive Aerosols in Complex Urban Environments, China Institute for Radiation Protection, Platform Open Fund, Grant No. ZFYHHJMN-2023001, 2023-11 to 2025-11, 130,000 RMB, PI
6.Theory and Methods for the Storage Management of Hazardous Chemicals, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Special Program), Grant No. 72442008, 2025-01-01 to 2028-12-31, 2,000,000 RMB, Co-PI
7.Theoretical Modeling of Nuclear Accidents, National Defense University, Grant No. 20234810257, 2023-12-01 to 2025-12-01, 198,000 RMB, Co-PI
8.Spatiotemporal Evolution and Dynamic Early Warning Methods of Flood Disasters in Urban Subway Tunnels, National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program), Grant No. 52474236, 2025-01-01 to 2028-12-31, 480,000 RMB, Co-PI
9.Interdisciplinary Forum on Urban Extreme Disaster Response, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Special Program), Grant No. T2442020, 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31, 100,000 RMB, Co-PI
10.Experimental Simulation and Characteristic Analysis of Fire Safety in New Energy Electric Vehicles, Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), Singapore, International Collaboration Project, 2025-01-01 to 2025-12-31, 2,850,000 RMB, Co-PI

Academic Achievement

[1]Jianyao, Yudie, Hongyong Yuan, Guofeng Su, Jing Wang, Wenguo Weng, and Xiaole Zhang*. 2025. 'Machine learning-enhanced high-resolution exposure assessment of ultrafine particles', Nature Communications, 16: 1209. (* Corresponding author)
[2]Xiaole Zhang, Xi Chen, Jing Wang, A number-based inventory of size-resolved black carbon particle emissions by global civil aviation, Nature Communications, 10 (2019) 534.
[3]Xiaole Zhang, Xi Chen, Yang Yue, Shuxiao Wang, Bin Zhao, Xinmei Huang, Tiantian Li, Qinghua Sun, Jing Wang, Ecological Study on Global Health Effects due to Source-Specific Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure, Environmental Science & Technology, 57 (2023) 1278-1291
[4]Xiaole Zhang#, Xiaoxiao Feng#, Jie Tian#, Yong Zhang, Zhiyu Li, Qiyuan Wang, Junji Cao, Jing Wang, Dynamic harmonization of source-oriented and receptor models for source apportionment, Science of The Total Environment, 859 (2023) 160312. (# contributed equally)
[5]Xiaole Zhang, Jing Wang, Atmospheric dispersion of chemical, biological, and radiological hazardous pollutants: Informing risk assessment for public safety, Journal of Safety Science and Resilience, 3 (2022) 372-397.
[6]Min Gao #, Xiaole Zhang#, Yang Yue, et al. Air path of antimicrobial resistance related genes from layer farms: emission inventory, atmospheric transport, and human exposure. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 128417, (2022) (# contributed equally)
[7]Xiaole Zhang#, Zheng Ji#, Yang Yue, Huan Liu, Jing Wang, Infection Risk Assessment of COVID-19 through Aerosol Transmission: a Case Study of South China Seafood Market, Environmental Science & Technology, 55 (2021) 4123-4133. (# contributed equally)
[8]Xiaole Zhang, Jing Wang, Dose-response Relation Deduced for Coronaviruses From Coronavirus Disease 2019, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome: Meta-analysis Results and its Application for Infection Risk Assessment of Aerosol Transmission, Clinical Infectious Diseases, 73 (2021) e241-e245.
[9]Xiaole Zhang, Matthias Karl, Luchi Zhang, Jing Wang, Influence of Aviation Emission on the Particle Number Concentration near Zurich Airport, Environmental Science & Technology, 54 (2020) 14161-14171.
[10]Xiaole Zhang, G. Efthimiou, Yan Wang, Meng Huang, Comparisons between a new point kernel-based scheme and the infinite plane source assumption method for radiation calculation of deposited airborne radionuclides from nuclear power plants, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 184–185 (2018) 32-45.
[11]Xiaole Zhang, W. Raskob, C. Landman, D. Trybushnyi, Yu Li, Sequential multi-nuclide emission rate estimation method based on gamma dose rate measurement for nuclear emergency management, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 325 (2017) 288-300.
[12]Xiaole Zhang, Meng Huang, Ensemble-based release estimation for accidental river pollution with known source position, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 333 (2017) 99-108.
[13]Xiaole Zhang, Guofeng Su, Jianguo Chen, W. Raskob, Hongyong Yuan, Quanyi. Huang. Iterative ensemble Kalman filter for atmospheric dispersion in nuclear accidents: An application to Kincaid tracer experiment, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 297 (2015), 329-339.
[14]Xiaole Zhang, Guofeng Su, Hongyong Yuan, Jiangguo Chen, Quanyi Huang, Modified ensemble Kalman filter for nuclear accident atmospheric dispersion: Prediction improved and source estimated, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 280 (2014) 143-155.
[15]Xiaole Zhang, W. Raskob, C. Landman, D. Trybushnyi, C. Haller, H. Yuan, Automatic plume episode identification and cloud shine reconstruction method for ambient gamma dose rates during nuclear accidents, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 178 (2017) 36-47.
[16]Xiaole Zhang, Qinbin Li, Guofeng. Su, Mengqi Yuan, Ensemble-based simultaneous emission estimates and improved forecast of radioactive pollution from nuclear power plant accidents: Application to ETEX tracer experiment, Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 142 (2015): 78-86.
[17]Xiaole Zhang, Wenguo Weng, Hongyong Yuan. Empirical study of crowd behavior during a real mass event, Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment 2012(2012) P08012.
[18]Xiaole Zhang, Wengguo Weng, Hongyong Yuan, Jianguo Chen. Empirical study of a unidirectional dense crowd during a real mass event, Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 392(2013) 2781-2791.
[19]张小乐, 胡隆华, 霍然等, 低重力下典型固体燃料的火焰特征及燃烧速率, 燃烧科学与技术, 17 (2011) 262-267.

Academic part-time job

2024–Present: Secretary-General, International Association of Disaster Risk and Emergency Management (IADREM)
2024–Present: Young Scientist, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR), International Science Council
2020–Present: Committee Member, Development Committee of the Multicomponent Aerosol Dynamics Model (MAFOR), Europe
2024–Present: Management Committee Member, Key Laboratory of Fire Safety for Electrochemical Energy under the Ministry of Emergency Management
2024–Present: Early Career Editorial Board Member, Emergency Management Science and Technology (International Journal)
2022–Present: Early Career Editorial Board Member, Sustainable Horizons (International Journal)
2022–2023: Guest Editor, Special Issue "Atmospheric Dispersion of Pollutants: From Regulatory to Emergency Applications", Atmosphere (International Journal)
2024–2025: Guest Editor, Special Issue "Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence in Fire and Flame Detection", Fire (International Journal)
2024: Session Chair, ERA. Environmental Risk Assessment, at the 17th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management & Asian Symposium on Risk Assessment and Management 2024 (PSAM17 & ASRAM2024), Sendai, Japan

Rewards and Honors