Dr. Jianyong Zhang is a Reader in Instrumentation and control. He obtained BSc and MSc degrees from Northeastern University and University of Science and Technology, Beijing (USTB) respectively, and gained PhD from Teesside University. He worked as an associate professor in USTB prior to joining the Teesside University.

His research career started from USTB in the measurement and control, weak signal detection and sensor development; particularly worked with the iron & steel industry and coal fired power stations for pulverised coal measurement using capacitance techniques and cross correlation method. He also worked for an analytical instrumentation manufacture as a service and commissioning engineer for 5 years. He was involved in two Chinese 7^th and 8^th 5-year plan projects.

Since joining Teesside University, he has worked on several EU and British government funded projects, and led several international, UK government and industry funded projects as a Principal Investigator. The total funding for Teesside University from these projects is over one million pounds. The outcomes of these projects have resulted in industrial applications. One of the two submitted impact cases by Teesside University in REF 2014 (General Engineering) was based on the research of the development of the electrostatic pulverised fuel meter, which was widely recognized. Over 80 papers including book chapters, peer reviewed journal and conference papers have been published, which have impacted the areas of studies. The research outcomes from his work have been included in 2008 and 2014 REF submissions.

Dr. Zhang has been the reviewer of several international journals including Journal of Electronics, Powder Technology, Sensor and Actuator, IEEE Sensors, Measurement and Control, Particuology, Robotics, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, Journal of Chemical Engineering & Communications and IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation & Measurement. He is a member of the Institute of Measurement and Control, and a contact person of EU RFCS. He is a councillor of an international federation for granular material measurement and control, and was the committee member of several international conferences. He has been invited to give keynote speeches, present papers for many international conferences, and chaired plenary and group sessions. As a visiting scholar, Dr. Zhang has been working with academic and research partners in several prestigious universities including Southeast University, Shanghai University for Science, Technology, North China University, and University of Newcastle in Australia etc. He also hosted a number of international scholars in the field of measurement and control. He is a visiting professor of the University of North China.  Internal collaboration projects were awarded as the results.

His research has been focused on measurement and control, energy saving, efficiency improvement, emission reduction, sustainability and industrial applications. His research interests also include signal conditioning and processing, sensing technologies, medical sensing, medical data analysis and diagnosis.

Research interests include:

• Mathematic modelling, modelling through machine leaning
• Gas-solids (powder) flow and other multi-phase flow measurements
• Process tomography
• Instrumentation and sensing technology
• Electrostatic techniques
• Signal conditioning and signal processing
• Measurement error analysis and statistics
• Medical sensing and data analysis

Research projects:

• 2018-2020: Modelling a gas solids flow meter through machine learning, collaboration with North University of China, funded by Natural fundation, Shanxi, China.
• 2015--2018: Innovation Project, measurement system development for pulverised coal, Collaboration with North University of China, funded by Shanxi province, China
• April 2013 - April 2014 Enterprise project Flow measurement, University funded project.
• March 2011 - July 2012 KTP with Cleveland Potash, funded by Technology Stretegy Board (now innovate UK),
• 2010 - 2011 CIP with Cleveland Potash, funded by One Northeast.
• University funded project (2005-07) An investigation into the spatial characteristics of Electrostatic Pulverised-Fuel Meters
• RFCS (2004-2008) - Online measurement of coal quality parameters by inference of sensor information, Funded by EU Research fund for coal and steel.
• ECSC (2000-04) - Online Measurement of Particle Size in Fine Coal Transport Systems, funded by EUropean Coal and steel community.
• ECSC (1999-2002) - Measurement and Control Techniques for Improving Combustion Efficiency and Reducing Emissions from Coal Fired Plant, European Coal and Steel Community
• DTI Clean Coal Technology Initiative, Industry funded project (1999-2001) - Pulverised Fuel Meters - Split Control, funded by UK government, Department of Technology and Innovation.