Faculty

Dr. Zhi Lu is currently an Assistant Professor at Tsinghua University. He received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Control Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2018 and 2023, followed by postdoctoral research from 2023 to 2025. His research interests include computational imaging, brain imaging and analysis, and intelligent microscopy, with focuses on: 1) high-dimensional light field imaging, enabling comprehensive recordings of temporal, spatial, and angular information for high-speed, high-resolution 3D microscopy including scanning light field imaging (Cell, 2021; Nat Protoc, 2022) and confocal scanning light field imaging (Nat Biotechnol, 2024); 2) efficient and robust reconstruction, developing artificial intelligence technologies to enhance the speed, resolution, and robustness of fluorescence images and videos, with contributions including super-resolution (Nat Methods, 2023), 3D reconstruction (Nat Methods, 2025), denoising, and de-scattering (Nat Commun, 2021) through phase-space correlation modeling; and 3) embodied AI analysis, aiming to understand the dynamics of large cell populations to reveal mechanisms of life sciences and medicine, with collaborative breakthroughs in drug-induced inflammation mechanisms (J Hepatol, 2023), microenvironment repair regulation (Adv Sci, 2024), and efferocytosis network pathways (Sci Transl Med, 2025). He holds 30+ invention patents. He is honorably on Forbes China 30 Under 30 List (2023), and supported by the National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (2023) and the Young Top-notch Talent of National High-Level Talent Special Support Program (2024). Additionally, he received SAIL awards at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (2022, 2024), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize (2024), the Award in Ten Advances for Optics in China (2022) and the Excellent Doctoral Thesis of Chinese Institute of Electronics, Chinese Association of Automation, and Beijing City (2023).

2018 - 2023 Ph.D., Department of Automation, Tsinghua University

2014 - 2018 B.S., Department of Automation, Tsinghua University

2025 - Present Assistant Professor & PI, Department of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Tsinghua University

2023 - 2025 PostDoc, Department of Automation, Tsinghua University

Mesoscale Brain Imaging and Analysis

Computational Neuroscience

Multimodal Data Understanding and Intelligent Analytics

AI-Driven Scientific Research

Vice Secretary: Biomedical Imaging Committee, Biophysics Society of China

Member: "AI+" Working Group of the National Health Commission

2025 Tsinghua Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellowship (10 out of 3,500)

2024 Young Top-notch Talent of the National High-Level Talent Special Support Program

2024 Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize winner (~30 people/year globally)

2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) Superior AI Leader (WAIC SAIL Award, the highest award in WAIC, 5 projects/year, ranked 1/1 in the project)

2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) Youth Outstanding Paper (WAIC YOP)

2023 International Congress of Basic Science (ICBS) Best Paper Award in Computational Optics

2023 Forbes China 30 Under 30 (Art, Science & Finance)

2023 National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents

2023 Excellent Doctoral Thesis Award, Beijing City

2023 Excellent Doctoral Thesis Award, Chinese Association of Automation

2023 Excellent Doctoral Thesis Award, Chinese Institute of Electronics

2023 Valedictorian at Tsinghua University Graduate Ceremony (1 out of 7,500)

2022 Tsinghua's Student of the Year 2022 (10 out of 45,000)

2022 Tsinghua Academic Rising Star Award (10 out of 30,000)

2021 China’s Top 10 Optical Breakthroughs, Nomination Award

2021 China's Technological Advances in Science & Technology Review

2021 Cell Press Most Picked Chinese Paper Award

(^# represents co-first author; * represents corresponding author)

Representative publications:

1. Jiamin Wu^#; Zhi Lu^#; Dong Jiang^#; Yuduo Guo; Hui Qiao; Yi Zhang; Tianyi Zhu; Yeyi Cai; Xu Zhang; Karl Zhanghao; Hao Xie; Tao Yan; Guoxun Zhang; Xiaoxu Li; Zheng Jiang; Xing Lin; Lu Fang; Bing Zhou; Peng Xi; Jingtao Fan*; Li Yu*; Qionghai Dai*; Iterative tomography with digital adaptive optics permits hour-long intravital observation of 3D subcellular dynamics at millisecond scale. Cell, 2021, 184, 3318-3332. (SCI, 2021 IF 66.850)

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.04.029

2. Zhi Lu^#; Yu Liu^#; Manchang Jin; Xin Luo; Huanjing Yue; Zian Wang; Siqing Zuo; Yunmin Zeng; Jiaqi Fan; Yanwei Pang; Jiamin Wu*; Jingyu Yang*; Qionghai Dai*; Virtual-scanning light-field microscopy for robust snapshot high-resolution volumetric imaging. Nature Methods, 2023, 20, 735-746. (SCI, 2023 IF 36.1)

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-023-01839-6

3. Zhi Lu^#; Manchang Jin^#; Shuai Chen; Xiaoge Wang; Feihao Sun; Qi Zhang; Zhifeng Zhao; Jiamin Wu*; Jingyu Yang*; Qionghai Dai*; Physics-driven self-supervised learning for fast high-resolution robust 3D reconstruction of light-field microscopy. Nature Methods, 2025, 22, 1545-1555. (SCI, 2024 IF 32.1)

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02698-z

4. Zhi Lu^#; Siqing Zuo^#; Minghui Shi^#; Jiaqi Fan; Jingyu Xie; Guihua Xiao; Li Yu*; Jiamin Wu*; Qionghai Dai*; Long-term intravital subcellular imaging with confocal scanning light-field microscopy. Nature Biotechnology, 2025, 43, 569–580. (SCI, 2024 IF 41.7)

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02249-5

5. Zhi Lu; Yeyi Cai; Yixin Nie; Yuxin Yang; Jiamin Wu*; Qionghai Dai*; A practical guide to scanning light-field microscopy with digital adaptive optics. Nature Protocols, 2022, 17, 1953–1979. (SCI, 2022 IF 14.8)

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-022-00703-9

Other publications (sort by year):

2025 [6] Shuai Chen^#; Bingyuan Huang^#; Shanshan Li^#; Zhijing Wang^#; Yizhong Chang; Huaming Huang; Chun Liu; Shuo Zhang; Manchang Jin; Haoyu Jia; Bo Yang; Ziwen Tao; Li Chen; Kai Guo; Zhi Lu*; Jing Li*; Fei Wang*; Changqing Yang*; Myeloid Mas-driven macrophage efferocytosis promotes resolution in ischemia-stressed mouse and human livers. Science Translational Medicine, 2025, 17, eadr2725. (SCI, 2024 IF 14.6)

[7] Qicheng Zhuang, Xiaoqian Jin, Yizhong Chang, Huaming Huang, Ziwen Tao, Zhi Lu, Shuai Chen*, Changqing Yang*; Burden, Trends, and Projections of Alcohol-Associated Liver Disease and Alcohol Use Disorder in the Asia-Pacific Region 1990–2040. Liver International, 2025, 45, e70221. (SCI, 2024 IF 5.2)

[8] Qian Xiang^#; Yaqin Du^#; Zhukai Cong^#; Yutian Xiao; Zhi Lu; Mingjie Shao; Jian Xie*; Warifteine Alleviates ALI and Inhibits NETosis by Decreasing ROS-induced GSDMD Oligomerization. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, 2025. (SCI, 2024 IF 5.3) https://doi.org/10.1165/rcmb.2024-0472OC

[9] Fangfei Yu; Shaowei Jiang; Lishan Ye; Zhi Lu; Yiran Wang; Huijuan Wang; Yi Yang*; Confocal scanning light-field microscopy enables intravital visualization of remodeling hepatic immune microenvironment in chronic stress suffered mice. Fifth Optics Frontier Conference, 2025, 13648. (EI)

2024 [10] Shuai Chen^#; Zhi Lu^#; Yudong Zhao^#; Lu Xia^#; Chun Liu; Siqing Zuo; Manchang Jin; Haoyu Jia; Shanshan Li; Shuo Zhang; Bo Yang; Zhijing Wang; Jing Li*; Fei Wang*; Changqing Yang*; Myeloid-Mas Signaling Modulates Pathogenic Crosstalk among MYC⁺CD63⁺ Endothelial Cells, MMP12⁺ Macrophages and Monocytes in Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury. Advanced Science, 2024, 11, 202306066. (SCI, 2024 IF 14.1)

[11] Xin Luo^#; Zhi Lu^#,*; Manchang Jin; Shuai Chen; Jingyu Yang*; Efficient high-resolution fluorescence projection imaging over an extended depth of field through optical hardware and deep learning optimizations. Biomedical Optics Express, 2024, 15, 3831-3847. (SCI, 2024 IF 3.2)

[12] Xin Luo^#; Gaosheng Liu^#; Zhi Lu; Kun Li; Jingyu Yang*; Efficient Low-Light Light Field Enhancement With Progressive Feature Interaction. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence, 2024. (SCI, 2024 IF 6.5)

[13] Yifan Chen^#, Jiamin Wu^#,*, Bo Xiong^#, Zhi Lu, Yuduo Guo, Yi Zhang, Jiaqi Fan, Guihua Xiao, Guoxun Zhang, Xiaopeng Li, Xukang Wang, Zhifeng Zhao; Qionghai Dai*; High-speed in toto 3D imaging with isotropic resolution by scanning light-field tomography. Optica, 2024, 11, 1445-1453. (SCI, 2024 IF 8.5)

[14] Tianyi Zhu^#; Lina Liu^#; Yibo Sun; Zhi Lu; Yuanlong Zhang; Chao Xu; Jun Chen*; Semi-supervised noise-resilient anomaly detection with feature autoencoder. Knowledge-Based Systems, 2024, 304, 112445. (SCI, 2024 IF 7.6)

[15] Zhi Lu*; Jiamin Wu*; Qionghai Dai*; Combining line confocal and scanning light field microscopy to achieve high-resolution observations in deep tissues. Imaging Systems and Applications, 2024, JM4A. (EI)

[16] Shuo Zhang; Xiaoqi Xia; Bing Ji; Yizhong Chang; Bo Yang; Haoyu Jia; Shuai Chen; Zhi Lu; Lu Xia; Jing Li; Changqing Yang*; IDDF2024-ABS-0027 The prognostic value of serum metabolites in predicting hepatic decompensation among patients with cirrhosis. Gut, 73(Suppl 2), 2024, A237-A239. (EI)

[17] Shuai Chen*; Changqing Yang; Zhi Lu; WED-017-YI Myeloid Mas-dependent macrophage efferocytosis maintains immune homeostasis in the ischemia-stressed mouse and human livers. Journal of Hepatology, 80, S362-S363, 2024. (EI)

[18] Shuai Chen; Zhi Lu; Changqing Yang*; Tu1587 Myeloid Mas Signaling Regulates Macrophage Efferocytosis and Resolution in Ischemia-Stressed Mouse and Human Liver. Gastroenterology, 166 (5), S-1741-S-1742, 2024. (EI)

2023 [19] Shuai Chen^#; Zhi Lu^#; Haoyu Jia^#; Bo Yang^#; Chun Liu; Yuxin Yang; Shuo Zhang; Zhijing Wang; Liu Yang; Shanshan Li; Jing Li* and Changqing Yang*. Hepatocyte-specific Mas activation enhances lipophagy and fatty acid oxidation to protect against acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity. Journal of Hepatology, 2023, 78, 543-557. (SCI, 2023 IF 26.8)

[20] Zhifeng Zhao^#; Yiliang Zhou^#; Bo Liu^#; Jing He^#; Jiayin Zhao; Yeyi Cai; Jingtao Fan; Xinyang Li; Zilin Wang; Zhi Lu; Jiamin Wu*; Hai Qi*; Qionghai Dai*; Two-photon synthetic aperture microscopy for minimally invasive fast 3D imaging of native subcellular behaviors in deep tissue. Cell, 2023, 186, 2475-2491. (SCI, 2023 IF 45.5)

[21] Zhi Lu*; Jiamin Wu; Qionghai Dai; Virtual-scanning network for high-resolution light-field microscopy. In Third International Computing Imaging Conference (CITA), 2023, 12921, 62-63. (EI)

[22] Shuai Chen; Zhi Lu; Shanshan Li; Huaming Huang; Jing Li; Changqing Yang*; IDDF2023-ABS-0045 Spatiotemporal immune landscape of Mas-driven pro-inflammatory microenvironment with hyperactivated glycolysis in acetaminophen-induced liver injury. Gut, 72(Suppl 1), 2023, A25-A28. (EI)

2022 [23] Jiamin Wu^#; Yuduo Guo^#; Chao Deng^#; Anke Zhang; Hui Qiao; Zhi Lu; Jiachen Xie; Lu Fang*; Qionghai Dai*; An integrated imaging sensor for aberration-corrected 3D photography, Nature, 2022, 612, 62-71. (SCI, 2022 IF 64.8)

[24] Yi Zhang^#; Yuling Wang^#; Mingrui Wang; Yuduo Guo; Xinyang Li; Yifan Chen; Zhi Lu; Jiamin Wu*; Xiangyang Ji*; Qionghai Dai*; Multi-focus light-field microscopy for high-speed large-volume imaging. PhotoniX, 2022, 3, 1-20. (SCI, 2022 IF 16.5)

[25] Tianyi Zhu^#; Yuduo Guo^#; Yi Zhang; Zhi Lu; Xing Lin; Lu Fang; Jiamin Wu*; Qionghai Dai*; Noise-robust phase-space deconvolution for light-field microscopy. Journal of Biomedical Optics, 2022, 27, 076501. (SCI, 2022 IF 3.5)

2021 [26] Yi Zhang^#; Zhi Lu^#; Jiamin Wu^#,*; Xing Lin; Dong Jiang; Yeyi Cai; Jiachen Xie; Yuling Wang; Tianyi Zhu; Xiangyang Ji*; Qionghai Dai*; Computational optical sectioning with an incoherent multiscale scattering model for light-field microscopy. Nature Communications, 2021, 12, 6391. (SCI, 2021 IF 17.694)

[27] Yuanlong Zhang^#; Bo Xiong^#; Yi Zhang; Zhi Lu; Jiamin Wu*; Qionghai Dai*; DiLFM: an artifact-eliminated and noise-robust light-field microscopy through dictionary learning. Light: Science & Applications, 2021, 10, 152. (SCI, 2021 IF 20.257)

2020 [28] Zhi Lu; Yi Zhang; Tianyi Zhu; Tao Yan; Jiamin Wu; Qionghai Dai*; High-speed 3D observation with multi-color light field microscopy. Microscopy Histopathology and Analytics, 2020, MM2A. (EI)

2019 [29] Zhi Lu; Jiamin Wu; Hui Qiao; You Zhou; Tao Yan; Zijing Zhou; Xu Zhang; Jingtao Fan; Qionghai Dai*; Phase-space deconvolution for light field microscopy. Optics Express, 2019, 27, 18131-18145. (SCI, 2019 IF 3.669)

[30] Zhi Lu; Jiamin Wu; Hui Qiao; Tao Yan; Zijing Zhou; Xu Zhang; Jingtao Fan; Qionghai Dai*; Artifact-free 3D deconvolution for light field microscopy. Novel Techniques in Microscopy, 2019, NS1B. (EI)

[31] Xiaoxu Li; Hui Qiao; Jiamin Wu; Zhi Lu; Tao Yan; Ruxin Zhang; Xu Zhang; Qionghai Dai*; DeepLFM: Deep learning-based 3d reconstruction for light field microscopy. Novel Techniques in Microscopy, 2019, NM3C. (EI)

2018 [32] Jijun He; Jiamin Wu; Zhi Lu; Qionghai Dai*; Compressive hyperspectral imaging for snapshot multi-channel fluorescence microscopy. Computational Optical Sensing and Imaging, 2018, CW2E. (EI)

For more publications, please visit my Google Scholar profile.