Dr. Zhou was born in 1965 in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province.

He was admitted to Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) in 1982. In 1988 and 1992, he respectively obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees from École Centrale Lyon, France. From 1993 to 1995, he conducted postdoctoral research at Laval University, Canada. From 1995 to 1997, he served as a visiting professor at École Centrale Lyon. In February 1997, he returned to China. In 2001, he was appointed as the dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering, SWJTU. In 2006 he was appointed as the dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering, SWJTU. In April 2010, he was appointed as assistant president of SWJTU. In March 2018, he became vice president of SWJTU.

Dr. Zhou is an academic leader (2005) of the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His honors and awards also include China Youth Science and Technology Award, Achievement Award of Returned Overseas Students, National Excellent Teacher. He has served as academic board members of several state key laboratories, for instance, the State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, and several provincial and ministerial key laboratories, for instance, the Key Laboratory of Education Ministry for Modern Design and Rotor-Bearing System, Xi’an Jiaotong University. Dr. Zhou also acts as editorial board members of several domestic and foreign academic journals, including the Editor-in-Chief of Biosurface and Biotribology and an Associate Editor-in-Chief of Tribology. Dr. Zhou is a deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress.

He takes charge of strategic development, education and teaching of the Graduate School, as well as physical education; he also assists in overseeing discipline development.