He has a long history with the Yale University School of Medicine, where he completed a postdoc, served as a Research Associate Professor, and served as an Assistant Professor before coming to Boston University. There he joined the editorial board of academic journals such as the Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy and the Journal of Depression & Anxiety. While at his alma mater, Queen's University, Dr. Zhang was a research assistant in at the Cytogenetics & DNA Research Lab in the Department of Psychiatry. Currently, he receives two grants from the National Institute of Health: one for exploratory/developmental research and one for his own personal research project which focuses on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of substance (alcohol or drug) dependence.