Dr. Zhao was born in the City of Jilin located in the northeast of China, which is well known for its magnificent natural phenomenon of rime ice in winter. He obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Jilin University in 2005. He conducted Ph.D. thesis research in Bioanalytical Chemistry with Profs. James F. Rusling and John B. Schenkman at the Department of Chemistry of University of Connecticut. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Zhao contributed to designing high-throughput methods for the screening and structural elucidation of DNA-reactive chemicals using electrochemistry and liquid chromatography --- mass spectrometry. After his doctoral training, Dr. Zhao decided to learn more about the biological effect of chemically modified DNA. He was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Profs. F. Peter Guengerich and Martin Egli at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, whereby he obtained solid skills in protein biochemistry, enzymology, nucleic acid chemistry, and macromolecule X-ray crystallography. He elucidated the mutagenic mechanism of N2,3-ethenoguanine, a chemically modified DNA base derived from vinyl chloride exposure and oxidative stress, and concluded that N2,3-ethenoguanine is an important DNA modification for the vinyl chloride-induced human liver carcinoma.

          In Aug 2013, Dr. Zhao started his independent research at CMU. His research team focuses on understanding the chemical, kinetic, and molecular mechanisms of DNA-protein interactions, with an emphasis on DNA-replication and repair proteins.