Prof. Zhao is currently full Professor of Biochemical Engineering and Organic Chemistry, and Vice-Director of Division of Biotechnology at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He earned his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS (1998), worked as a postdoctoral fellow on enzymology and antibiotics biosynthesis at University of Minnesota (1998-2001) and University of Texas at Austin (2001-2003). He joined Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, in November 2003. His research focuses on energy biotechnology and chemical biology, with particular interests in microbial lipid production and synthetic metabolism. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers with an H-index of 35. He held over 20 patents. He currently assumes the role as Editor of FEMS Yeast Research.