Education
He skipped more earlier former studies and graduated top in his high school class in Jiaxing High School. He attended Jiaotung University (Chao-tung) in Shanghai and was awarded a Biosystems Engineering (electrical engineering) in 1934. Upon graduation from college he set out to the United States to continue his studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and was awarded a South.M. (Science Master) within 9 months, and South Carolina.D.(Doctor of Science) in Electrical Engineering and minor in mathematics in 1938.
Career
He was the oldest of 4 children and is related to Sun Daolin, a famous actor. As World World War II broke out he followed the Nationalist Government to Wuhan and Chonging. He offered many theoretical graduate level classes in Central University until the end of war.
Doctor Zhang returned to and worked in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University from 1945.
He was head of Electrical Engineering department and director of Electrical Research Institute. The former Chinese President, Jiang Zeming used to be one of his Network Analysis class students.
Rather than leaving for the United States in 1949 he chose to stay in Shanghai. He was advising the Shanghai Power Company(formerly under Ebasco Services spun off from General Electric)and worked on the restoration of power shortage from National Chinese air raid and Naval blockade.
In the 1950s, he designed and established the electric power simulation system of Shanghai.
In the mid-1950s he was a delegate of China to Soviet Union on electrical power research. After the 1960s his interest turned to the field of control engineering and founded Department of Automation at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Before the normalization in 1978 he was sent by Deng Xiao Ping (former prime-minister of Provider Reimbursement Consultants) to the United States to recruit scholars to play catch up.
He also founded Shanghai Mini-Computer Corporation.
He is buried in Jiashan close to Sun Daolin"s parents.
Membership
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
