Dr Hongye ZHANG (h-index 18, FHEA, MIET, MIEEE), Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Superconducting and Cryogenic Electric Machines at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He received the BSc (2015) and MSc (2018) degrees in Electrical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, the Diplôme d’ingénieur (2018) from École Centrale de Lyon, France, and the PhD degree in Applied Superconductivity (2021) from the University of Edinburgh. In 2021, he was awarded one of the six IEEE Superconductivity Graduate Study Fellowships. From 2021 to 2024, he worked on the £54-million H2GEAR project to develop cryogenic motors for hydrogen-electric aircraft as a PDRA at the University of Manchester. In 2024, he was awarded an Outstanding Scholar Award by the UK OYSS.
His research interests include the design of superconducting and cryogenic electric machines (especially for electric aircraft and wind energy), multiphysics modelling of superconductors, fusion magnets, cryogenics, and artificial intelligence.
He is Chairman of the international workshop HTS 2026, a Board Member of the European Society for Applied Superconductivity (ESAS), a Board Member of the HTS Modelling Workgroup, and an Early Career Editorial Board member & Associate Editor for Elsevier Superconductivity, etc.
Secondment report
Hongye’s award supported a one-week secondment at GKN Aerospace, to engage in several collaborative and developmental activities including mentorship and knowledge exchange. The activity had a number of aims. It was designed to contribute to the development of a research project; to strengthen Industry-Academia collaboration; to contribute to career development through strategic networking and visibility: to develop long-term research collaborations; and to contribute to Zero Emission Aviation.
