Xizheng started college at Sun Yet-Sen University before transferring to Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he received his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 2015. He then received his Master’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering at UF in 2017 before joining the Chemistry Ph.D. program at UF. Xizheng joined the Prentice Group in the fall of 2018. He is the first ever PhD graduate from the Prentice Lab! He completed his PhD in the spring of 2023 and took a position at Eli Lilly in Indiana.

Publications

• Xiao, T., Nagaoka, Y., Wang, X., Jiang, T., LaMontagne, D., Zhang, Q., Cao, C., Diao, X., … & Cao, Y. C. (2022). Nanocrystals with metastable high-pressure phases under ambient conditions. Science, 377(6608), 870-874.
• Diao, X., Ellin, R. N., Prentice, M. P. (2023). Selective Schiff base formation via gas-phase ion/ion reactions to enable differentiation of isobaric lipids in imaging mass spectrometry. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 1-13.

Teaching Experience

• TA- CHM2045L – General Chemistry Laboratory
• TA- CHM2211L – Organic Chemistry Laboratory
• TA- CHM3120L – Analytical Chemistry Laboratory
• TA- CHM4130L – Instrumental Analysis Laboratory
• TA- CHM6158C – Electronics and Instrumentation

Presentations

• Xizheng Diao, Boone M. Prentice, Selective Gas-Phase Schiff Base Formation via Ion/Ion Reactions to Enable Differentiation of Isobaric Lipids in Imaging Mass Spectrometry, Oral presentation, Proceedings of the 70^th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Minneapolis, MN, 2022.
• Xizheng Diao, Boone M. Prentice, Selective gas-phase Schiff base formation of phosphatidylserine lipids in imaging mass spectrometry using charge inversion ion/ion reactions, Poster presentation, American Chemical Society FAME Mini-Session, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 2021.
• Xizheng Diao, Brandon Califar, Robert J. Ferl, Anna-Lisa Paul and Boone M. Prentice, In-situ Analysis of Spaceflight Effects on Xyloglucan Composition of Arabidopsis thaliana Root Cell Walls using MALDI Mass Spectrometry, Poster presentation, Proceedings of the 69^th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Philadelphia, PA, 2021
• Brandon Califar, Xizheng Diao, Boone M. Prentice, Robert J. Ferl, and Anna-Lisa Paul, Xyloglucan Oligosaccharide Abundance and O-Acetylation are Altered in Arabidopsis thaliana Cell Walls in Spaceflight, Oral presentation, Proceedings of the 36^th annual meeting of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR), Virtual meeting, 2020.
• Xizheng Diao, Boone M. Prentice, Selective gas-phase Schiff base formation of phosphatidylserine lipids in imaging mass spectrometry using charge inversion ion/ion reactions, Poster presentation, Proceedings of the 68^th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Virtual meeting, 2020.
• Brandon Califar, Xizheng Diao, Ran Zheng, Boone M. Prentice, Sixue Chen, Robert J. Ferl, and Anna-Lisa Paul, In situ Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Spaceflight Effects on Xyloglucan Composition of Arabidopsis thaliana Root Cell Walls, Poster presentation, Proceedings of the 35^th annual meeting of the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR), Denvor, CO, 2019.
• Julia R. Bonney; Xizheng Diao.; Boone M. Prentice, Gas-phase charge inversion ion/ion reactions on an FTICR mass spectrometer for fatty acid identification in imaging mass spectrometry. Poster presentation, Proceedings of the 67th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, Atlanta, GA, 2019.