Yan Zhang received her master degree from the institute of physical chemistry, Freie Universität Berlin in 2008. The master thesis was regarding to the nucleation rates of supercoole liquids. Then she did her doctor work under supervision of Prof. Dr. Eckart Rühl also in the Freie Universität and obtained her PHD degree in 2012. Her doctor thesis focused mainly on the studies of cluster evolution in supersaturated solutions before crystallization by means of X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) combined with optical levitation. Afterwards she moved to the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), and joined the group of Prof. Dr. Juan José Sáenz in the condensed matter department as a postdoc. Her research during this time was basically centered upon theoretical simulations of electromagnetic wave scattered by sub-wave dielectric particles. Following this, in 2013 she moved to CIC energiGUNE and joined the research line of surface analysis which aims to perform physical and chemical analysis and characterization for battery materials. The main techniques used in the research line include Raman spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and so on.

• Non-destructive surface analysis
• Physical and chemical characterization of battery materials
• Electrochemistry
• Cathode-electrolyte/anode-electrolyte interface analysis

• X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES)by using synchrotron radiation
• Matlab performing theoretical simulation
• Surface and interface analysis
• Spectroscopy
• Non-destructive surface analysis techniques
• Self-design specific equipment under/not under ultra-high vaccum