Portrait of Zihan Xu

Zihan Xu

Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Mathematics
University of California, Merced

I develop statistics-informed neural-network surrogates for stochastic dynamical systems and hybrid simulation. My research interests include stochastic dynamical systems, scientific machine learning, uncertainty quantification, computational biology, and quantitative oncology.

Advisor: Prof. Changho Kim · Expected graduation: Spring 2027

News

Research

Statistics-informed neural networks for multidimensional stochastic processes

Developing recurrent neural-network surrogates that learn and generate stochastic trajectories by matching marginal, cross-variable, temporal, and conditional statistics.

First-author manuscript in advanced preparation; submission expected late September or early October 2026.

Stochastic dynamical systems with a slowly varying parameter

Extending SINN through a branch–trunk architecture to reproduce distributions, time correlations, and parameter-conditioned statistics in quasi-stationary systems.

MDS26 poster and CSE27 invited talk.

SINN architecture comparison

Benchmarking neural-network architectures and numerical evaluation workflows for stochastic trajectory generation.

NCC26 poster planned. Final title and public repository forthcoming.

Hybrid simulation at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Embedded SINN as a neural surrogate for the fast stochastic component of a two-way coupled particle–continuum simulation and integrated generated trajectories into the multiscale workflow.

Manuscript

  1. Learning and Generating Time Trajectories of Multidimensional Stochastic Processes.
    Zihan Xu, Changho Kim, Yuanran Zhu, Bhargav Siddani, and Andy J. Nonaka.
    First-author manuscript in advanced preparation; submission expected late September or early October 2026.

Selected Presentations

Education & Training

University of California, Merced

Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, expected Spring 2027 · GPA: 4.00/4.00

Selected coursework: Scientific Computing and Deep Learning.

University of Southern California

M.S. in Mathematical Finance

Iowa State University

B.S. in Applied Mathematics: Actuarial Science

Applied Bioinformatics, UC San Diego Extended Studies

Certificate expected 2026. Completed: Bioinformatics Fundamentals (A+) and Genomic Sequencing Technologies (A).

Processing Actionable Data in Genomics and Modern-Omics: Technologies and Applications scheduled for Sep. 28–Nov. 27, 2026.

Harvard Medical School HMX

Cancer Genomics and Precision Oncology, in progress.

Selected Honors & Awards

Teaching

Teaching Assistant · University of California, Merced

  • Calculus II (MATH 012), Fall 2026
  • Probability and Statistics (MATH 032), Fall 2025
  • Linear Analysis I (MATH 141), Spring 2023
  • Calculus I (MATH 021), Fall 2022
  • Linear Algebra and Differential Equations (MATH 024), Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and Summer 2022