Prof. Zhou is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He currently serves as Associate Chair (Research) in the school and Programme Director (Marine & Offshore) in Singapore Centre for 3D Printing. He received both his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees from Tsinghua University, China and his Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University, USA and a visiting scholar at Harvard University, USA.

Prof. Zhou has been conducting multidisciplinary research at the crossroads of mechanics, additive manufacturing, materials science, and molecular physics. He was elected Fellow of European Academy of Sciences as well as Fellow of American Physical Society, Institute of Physics (UK), Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK), Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), and Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (UK).

Prof. Zhou has authored more than 500 journal articles, three books including two as the first author "Metal Powder–Based Additive Manufacturing" (320 pages, Wiley, 2023) and "Molecular Dynamics Simulation: Fundamentals and Applications" (345 pages, Elsevier, 2022), and 39 book chapters, and edited three books. He has also filed six US patents. Since 2022, he has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field by Clarivate.

Prof. Zhou has founded the journal Smart Manufacturing and serves as its Editor-in-Chief. He has also co-founded Journal of Micromechanics and Molecular Physics and serves as its Co-Editor-in-Chief. In addition, he serves as an Associate Editor / Editorial Board Member of several reputable international journals, including International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, Mechanics Research Communications, Materials Today, International Journal of Machine Tools and Manufacture, Virtual and Physical Prototyping, Friction, and International Journal of Fatigue.

Prof. Zhou is devoted to educating young researchers. His Ph.D. students received awards for their outstanding research theses from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in three consecutive years. More than 40 of his former Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers have become faculty members in academia.

Prof. Zhou was General Chair of the 30th International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences held in Singapore during August 3-6, 2024, which has attracted over 1,300 participants worldwide.