Teaching & Mentoring

Since 2022, Dr. Zhang has mentored 18 trainees in the lab, from a high school student through graduate students, medical students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. He also directs and teaches graduate courses in epidemiology and nutrition.

Courses

  • Nutritional Epidemiology. Course Director, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2026–present).
  • Introduction to Epidemiological Methods. Course Director, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2024–2025).
  • Introduction to Meta-analysis. Course Director, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2023–2025).
  • Fundamental Epidemiology. Guest lecturer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2024–present).
  • Cancer Epidemiology. Guest lecturer, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (2025–present) and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (2022–2024).

Mentoring approach

Each mentoring plan is built around the trainee’s goals and learning style, with structured guidance on study design, data analysis and manuscript preparation. Every mentee is expected to carry a project through to a first-author product.

Trainee outcomes

Lab mentees have published as first authors in The Journal of Nutrition, Nutrients, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Communications Medicine, and Neurogastroenterology and Motility. They have presented at AASLD The Liver Meeting, Digestive Disease Week, the EASL Congress and ACG, and several have secured institutional seed grants. Graduates have gone on to residency, medical school, research positions at academic medical centers, and faculty roles in academic medicine.

Graduate training and outreach

  • Training Faculty (Mentoring Track), Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences: Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies in Medicine (AIET), Disease Mechanism and Therapeutics (DMT), the Graduate Program in Public Health, and the MS and PhD in Clinical Research programs (2023–present)
  • Didactic Faculty, MS/PhD Clinical Research Education Program (2023–present)
  • MD-PhD Admissions Committee, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2023–present)
  • Mount Sinai PhD Application Assistance and Advisory Program, SINAI4US (2023–present)
  • Mount Sinai Center for Excellence in Youth Education (CEYE), which brought a high school student into the lab in 2026

If you would like to train with us, see current openings.