Fred Zhangzhi Peng
PhD Student
About
Fred Zhangzhi Peng is a third-year PhD student at Duke University, where he works with Anru Zhang on statistical machine learning and with Alexander Tong (AITHYRA) on generative models. His research focuses on diffusion and discrete generative models, with applications spanning language models and protein design.
Specialization
Co-supervisors
Anru R. Zhang, Christian Dallago
Publications
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Coupling Models for One-Step Discrete Generation
Fred Zhangzhi Peng, Avishek Joey Bose, Anru R. Zhang, Alexander Tong
Preprint
May 2026
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Don't Retrain, Align: Adapting Autoregressive LMs to Diffusion LMs via Representation Alignment
Fred Zhangzhi Peng, Alexis Fox, Anru R. Zhang, Alexander Tong
Preprint
May 2026
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Planner Aware Path Learning in Diffusion Language Models Training
Fred Zhangzhi Peng*, Zachary Bezemek*, Jarrid Rector-Brooks, Shuibai Zhang, Anru R. Zhang, Michael Bronstein, Avishek Joey Bose†, Alexander Tong†
In ICLR 2026 (Oral)
May 2026
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Path Planning for Masked Diffusion Model Sampling
Fred Zhangzhi Peng*, Zachary Bezemek*, Sawan Patel, Jarrid Rector-Brooks, Sherwood Yao, Alexander Tong†, Pranam Chatterjee†
arXiv preprint
February 2025