Received Ph.D. in Optics in 1993 from Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He was then a postdoc researcher and an Alexander-von-Humboldt fellow in the Max-Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garching, Germany and later a JSPS research fellow and research associate in Institute of Laser Engineerig,Osaka University, Japan. He joined the Institute of Physics, CAS, in Beijing in 2001 and has been a distinguished professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University since 2007. He received a few awards, including the Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars of NSFC in 2004, Rao Yutai Award of the Chinese Physical Society in 2007, Achievement in Asia Award (AAA Robert T. Poe Prize) of the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers (OCPA) in 2017. He published over 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals with ~13000 citations and H-index 58 in Web of Science (2023), or ~18000 citation in Google Scholars. He is a fellow of American Physical Society and a fellow of Institute of Physics, UK.

Research Interests:

1. Relativistic laser-plasma interactions and their applications in advanced particle accelerators and radiation production (from terahertz to gamma-rays)

2. Laser-driven high energy density physics and laboratory astrophysics

3. Physics of wave-particle interactions related to inertial confined fusion. 

4. Kinetic simulation methods such as particle-in-cell simulation, Fokker-Planck simulation

1. A. Pukhov, Z. M. Sheng, and J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, “Particle acceleration in relativistic laser channels”, Phys. Plasmas 6, 2847-2854 (1999).

2. Z.-M. Sheng, Y. Sentoku, K. Mima, J. Zhang, W. Yu, and J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, “Angular distributions of fast electrons, ions, and bremsstrahlung x/gamma-rays in intense laser interaction with solid targets”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 5340 (2000).

3. Z.-M. Sheng, K. Mima, Y. Sentoku, M. S. Jovanovic, T. Taguchi, J. Zhang, and J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, “Stochastic heating and acceleration of electrons in colliding laser fields in plasmas”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 055004 (2002).

4. Z. -M. Sheng, K. Mima, Y. Sentoku, K. Nishihara, and J. Zhang, “Generation of high-amplitude plasma wave for particle acceleration by cross-modulated laser wake-field”, Phys. Plasmas 9, 3147 (2002).

5. Y. T. Li, J. Zhang, Z. M. Sheng, H. Teng, T. J. Liang, X. Y. Peng, X. Lu, Y. J. Li, “Spatial distribution of high-energy electron emission from water plasmas produced by femtosecond laser pulses”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 165002 (2003).

6. Z.-M. Sheng, K. Mima, J. Zhang, and H. Sanuki, “Emission of electromagnetic pulses from laser wakefields through linear mode conversion”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 095003 (2005).

7. H.-C. Wu, Z.-M. Sheng, Q.-J. Zhang, Y. Cang and J. Zhang, “Manipulating Ultrashort Intense Laser Pulses by Plasma Bragg Gratings”, Phys. Plasmas 12, 113103 (2005).

8. S. M. Weng, Z. M. Sheng, M. Q. He, J. Zhang, P. A. Norreys, M. Sherlock, and A. P. L. Robinson, “Plasma currents and electron distribution functions under a DC electric field of arbitrary strength”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 185001 (2008).

9. X. Q. Yan, C. Lin, Z. M. Sheng, Z.Y. Guo, B.C.Liu, Y.R. Lu, J.X. Fang, J.E. Chen, “High current and monoenergetic proton beams generated by a circularly-polarized laser pulse in the phase-stable acceleration (PSA) regime”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 135003 (2008).

10. S. Mondal, V. Narayanan, W. J. Ding, A. D. Lad, B. Hao, S. Ahmad, W. M. Wang, Z. M. Sheng, S. Sengupta, P. K. Kaw, A. Das, and G. R. Kumar, “Direct observation of turbulent magnetic fields in hot, dense laser produced plasmas”, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.109, 8011 (2012).

11. L. M. Chen, W. C. Yan, D. Z. Li, Z. D. Hu, L. Zhang, W. M. Wang, N. Hafz, J. Y. Mao, K. Huang, Y. Ma, J. R. Zhao, J. L. Ma, Y. T. Li, X. Lu, Z. M. Sheng, Z. Y. Wei, J. Gao, J. Zhang, “Bright betatron x-ray radiation from a laser-driven-clustering gas target”, Scientific Reports 3, 1912 (2013).

12. F. Y. Li, Z. M. Sheng, Y. Liu, J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, W. B. Mori, W. Lu, and J. Zhang, “Dense attosecond electron sheets from laser wakefields using an up-ramp density transition”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 135002 (2013).

13. M. Zeng, M. Chen, Z. M. Sheng, W. B. Mori, and J. Zhang, “Self-truncated ionization injection and consequent monoenergetic electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration”, Phys. Plasmas 21, 030701 (2014).

14. Xing-Long Zhu, Tong-Pu Yu, Zheng-Ming Sheng, Yan Yin, Ion Cristian Edmond Turcu, and Alexander Pukhov, “Dense GeV electron–positron pairs generated by lasers in near-critical-density plasmas”, Nature Comm. 7:13686 (2016)

15. Yao Zhao, Suming Weng, Min Chen, Jun Zheng, Hongbin Zhuo, Chuang Ren, Zhengming Sheng, and Jie Zhang, "Effective suppression of parametric instabilities with decoupled broadband lasers in plasma", Phys. Plasmas 24, 112102 (2017).

16. J. Luo, M. Chen,W. Y. Wu, S. M. Weng, Z. M. Sheng, C. B. Schroeder, D. A. Jaroszynski, E. Esarey, W. P. Leemans, W. B. Mori, and J. Zhang, “Multistage Coupling of Laser-Wakefield Accelerators with Curved Plasma Channels”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 154801 (2018).

17. Zhelin Zhang, Yanping Chen, Sen Cui, Feng He, Min Chen, Zhen Zhang, Jin Yu, Liming Chen, Zhengming Sheng, Jie Zhang, "Manipulation of polarizations for broadband terahertz waves emitted from laser plasma filaments", Nature Photonics 12, 554–559 (2018). 

18. Xing-Long Zhu, Min Chen, Su-Ming Weng, Tong-Pu Yu, Wei-Min Wang, Feng He, Zheng-Ming Sheng, Paul McKenna, Dino A. Jaroszynski, Jie Zhang, “Extremely brilliant GeV gamma-rays from a two-stage laser-plasma accelerator”, Sci. Adv. 6 : eaaz7240 (2020).

19. Hanghang Ma, Charles Wu, Su-Ming Weng, Yew Shihan, Zhao Liu, Xiaofeng Li, Shigeo Kawata, Zheng-Ming Sheng, Jie Zhang, “Simulations of laser plasma instabilities using a particle-mesh method", Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 63, 095005 (2021).

20. Hanzhi Zhao, Zhengming Sheng and Suming Weng, Nonlocal thermal transport in magnetized plasma along different directions, Matter Radiat. Extremes 7, 045901 (2022).

• Qiushi Award on Science and Technologies (for High Laser Field Physics Team), Qiushi Science and Technologies Foundation, 2018

• Shanghai Award on Natural Science (first class), Shanghai Municipal Government, 2018

• Achievement in Asia Award (AAA Robert T. Poe Prize), The International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers (OCPA), 2017

• Fellow, Institute of Physics, 2015

• Fellow, American Physical Society, 2013

• Chang Jiang Scholar, Ministry of Education of China and Li Ka Shing Foundation (HK), 2008

• Rao Yutai Award, Chinese Physical Society, 2007

• Outstanding S&T Achievement Prize, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2007

• National Natural Science Award of China (2^nd Class), 2006

•  Fund for Outstanding Young Scholars, National Science Foundation of China, 2004

• 2019-2020, Working Group Member (Chair for computational plasma physics), Development Strategy for Computational Physics in China, organized by NSFC and CAS

• 2014-2017, Vice Chair, Division of Plasma Physics, Association of Asian-Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS-DPP)

• 2009-2010, Working Group Member, Physics Development Strategy of China for 2011-2020, organized by NSFC and CAS

• 2011-present, Member of EuroNNAc Organization Committee, European Network on Novel Accelerators (EuroNNAc)

• 2009-2012, Scientific Advisory Committee Member of the European Project: Extreme Light Infrastructure  (ELI)

• 2006-2018, Coordinator of Plasma Physics Sessions, Annual Autumn Conference of Chinese Physical Society

• 2006-2011, Secretary General, Cai Shidong Plasma Physics Award Foundation

Introduction to Plasma Physics; Introduction to High Energy Density Physics