Biography

Dr. Jiajie Zhang is dean, professor, and The Glassell Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Informatics Excellence at D. Bradley McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston. In addition, he is a professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center-UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Zhang has more than 30 years of research, education, application, and management experience in biomedical informatics, cognitive science, human technology integration, information visualization, usability and workflow, decision making, and machine learning. He has conducted pioneering research on distributed knowledge representations and their effects on decision making, problem solving, and human-computer interaction, and was early to recognize the importance of usability, design, and cognitive support in health information technology. In continuing that work at UTHealth Houston, Zhang led the $15M SHARPC Project arm of the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program, a seminal consortium funded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) to support innovative research addressing well-documented problems that impeded the adoption and use of health IT. The SHARPC Project focused on enhancing patient-centered cognitive support in EHR and health information technology, and resulted in the creation of the National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision Making in Healthcare.

Zhang has authored over 200 publications; has been the PI, Co-PI, or Co-I on numerous grants and contracts (Total cumulative funding: $242M [including $39M as Contact PI and $112M as MPI/Co-PI]); and has trained many PhD and MS students, as well as postdoctoral fellows. He was the recipient of a John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award and a President’s Award for Leadership from UTHealth Houston. He was awarded the President George H.W. Bush Award by the Asian Pacific American Heritage Association. Moreover, Zhang is an elected Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI), the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Also, Zhang is a member of the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Chair-elect of the AMIA Biomedical and Health Informatics Academic Leaders Community.

Since his formal appointment as dean of McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston in March of 2013, Zhang has led the rapid growth of the school—tripling faculty and student numbers, as well as research expenditures—through targeted faculty and student recruitment efforts; reshaping academic foci, programs, and curricula; developing tactical partnerships; and building the school’s research capacity and scope. In addition, he helped obtain support for the school’s facilities expansion and directed a major effort to bolster philanthropic funding; most recently, he helped secure a transformational gift that named the school. Under Zhang’s leadership, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston has become a national/international leader in biomedical informatics, health data science, and Medical AI.

Education

• PhD, Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego
• MS, Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego
• BS, Biology, University of Science & Technology of China (Special Class for Gifted Young)

Research Interests

• Human Technology Integration
• Usability and Workflow
• Cognitive Science
• Information Visualization
• Decision Making
• Machine Learning

Honors

• 2002, John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award, UTHealth Houston
• 2002, Recognition of Outstanding Leadership as Chair of Faculty Governance Organization, School of Health Information Sciences, UTHealth Houston
• 2003, Elected Fellow, American College of Medical Informatics (ACMI)
• 2006, Dr. Doris L. Ross Endowed Professorship
  
• 2015, President George H. W. Bush Award, Asian Pacific American Heritage Association (APAHA)
• 2015, Glassell Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Informatics Excellence
• 2019, Elected Fellow, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)
• 2020, Elected Fellow, International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI)
• 2023, Elected Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• 2023, President’s Award for Leadership, UTHealth Houston

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