Hey, my name is Ke (Coco) Zhang. I'm an Assistant Professor at the Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

My main research interests are circumstellar disks around young stars, which are cradles of planetary systems like our solar system. I study gas and dust distributions in these disks to understand the physical and chemical processes of planet formation. Please see more details in my research page.

News:

Welcome to our group, Alonzo Ma! Alonzo is a freshman undergraduate student at UW-Madison.
Welcome Dr. Nick Ballering for joining our group as a visiting scientist!
2025/06 The first group of results of our ALMA large program AGE-PRO on gas evolution of planet forming disks have been released! Please see NRAO press release and UW news here.
2025/06 Congratulations to Tayt Armitage for being awarded a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship !
2025/04 Congratulations to Carl Yao for receiving a Sophomore Research Fellowship!
2025/04 Congratulations to Nick Tallon for receiving a Sophomore Research Fellowship!
2025/04 Congratulations to Tayt Armitage for receiving honorable mention in NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program!
2025/03 Our JWST proposal "Population Study of Chemistry in the First Million Years of Planet Formation: A MIRI Survey of Embedded Disks in Ophiuchus" has been approved! (PI. Zhang, 68.5h)
2025/03 Congratulations to Tayt Armitage for being awarded the Wisconsin Space Grant Consordium Graduate Research Fellowship!
2025/03 Congratulations to our undergraduate Nick Tallon for receiving the Peter Livingston Scholarship and Wisconsin Space Grant Consordium undergraduate fellowship!
2024/10 Welcome to our group, Nick Tallon! Nick is a sophomore undergraduate student at UW Madison.
2024/09 Welcome to our new postdoc Abby Waggoner to join UW Madison!
2024/09 Welcome to our new first year graduate student Eshan Raul to join UW Madison!
2024/06 Our research forward proposal to study habitability of exoplanet hycean worlds has been funded!
2024/06 Welcome to our group, Carl Yao! Carl is a sophomore undergraduate student at UW Madison.
2024/04 Congratulations to our postbac student Leopold Hutnik who has been admitted to the graduate program at the New Mexico State University!
2024/03 Congratulations to our undergraduate Ella Chevalier! Ella is selected to attend the summer REU program at the University of California-Berkeley!
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