Zenghua joined the School of Astronomy and Space Science at the Nanjing University as an associate professor in December 2019. From 2017 to 2019, he was a PSL fellow at the the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France. From 2013 to 2016, he was an IAC fellow at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain. He completed his PhD in astrophysics and worked as a researcher at the Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, UK, from 2008 to 2013. He completed his MSc in astrophysics at the Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from 2005 to 2008. He earned a BSc in applied physics at the Yantai University from 2000 to 2004. Zenghua was born and raised in Tai'an, Shandong province, China. He is a referee for A&A, AJ, ApJ, and Nature journals, and an external reviewer for JWST cycles 6 and 7 proposals. 

“Astronomy Insights” lecture series, 2022-2024, 2026-

"Observational Astrophysics", 2025

“Writing research proposals and scientific journal papers”, 2020-2023

1. Characterization of L subdwarfs: discovery, classification, atmospheric and population properties (Primeval - I; Primeval - IV; Zhang+18c; Primeval - V).

2. Search for the most metal-poor very low-mass stars, transitional brown dwarfs (T-BD; Primeval - II, Press release; Primeval - III) and degenerate brown dwarfs (D-BD; Primeval - VI) in the Milky Way.

3. Revealing the observational and physical properties of very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with benchmarks in binary systems

(Burgasser+25, press; Benchmark - I, Press release; Primeval - VIII, Press release; Primeval - VII; Zhang+13; Zhang+10, Press release; Pavlenko+15).

4. Discovery and characterization of ultracool dwarfs in large area surveys (Zhang+09; Burningham+10; Day-Jones+13).

Press releases:

2025.10.3 "Detection of Phosphine in a Brown Dwarf Atmosphere Raises More Questions" UC San Diego; Science, arXiv

2025.8.19 "Rare quadruple star system could unlock mystery of brown dwarfs" Royal Astronomical Society; Nanjing University; School of Astronomy; CAB (Spanish); LNA (Portuguese); 

2024.8.20 "Waltz" in the Milky Way: The first age benchmark ultracool subdwarf with a white dwarf companion (Nanjing University; School of Astronomy; ESA Gaia Image of the Week; Uni. of Hertforshire; Centro de Astrobiología) 

ADS library of first author publications

ADS library of all publications

The Primeval very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs series (ADS library):

Primeval - I. Six new L subdwarfs, classification and atmospheric properties (free access)

Primeval - II. The most metal-poor substellar object (free access)

Primeval - III. The halo transitional brown dwarfs (free access)

Primeval - IV. New L subdwarfs, Gaia astrometry, population properties, and a blue brown dwarf binary (arXiv)

Primeval - V. A halo L3 subdwarf with prograde eccentric orbit in the Galactic plane (free access)

Primeval - VI. Population properties of metal-poor degenerate brown dwarfs (free access)

Primeval - VII. The discovery of the first wide M+L extreme subdwarf binary (arXiv)

Primeval - VIII. The first age benchmark L subdwarf, a wide companion to a halo white dwarf (open access) 

The Substellar Transition Zone: A Stretched Temperature Canyon in Brown Dwarf Population due to Unsteady Hydrogen Fusion (arXiv)

The Benchmark brown dwarfs series (ADS library):

Benchamrk - I. A blue M2 + T5 wide binary and a probable young [M4 + M4] + [T7 + T8] hierarchical quadruple (open access)