ZHAI Wanming is an Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and an international member of National Academy of Engineering. He was born in Jiangsu Province, China in August 1963. He graduated from Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) in 1985 and received the Ph.D. degree in Rail Vehicle Engineering from the same university in 1992. In 1994, he was promoted to full professorship and became the Director of Train and Track Research Institute at SWJTU. In 1999, he was appointed the Chang Jiang Scholar by Chinese Ministry of Education. Currently, he is a chair professor, the Dean of Faculty of Transportation Engineering, and the Chairman of Academic Committee of Southwest Jiaotong University.

Professor Zhai is a world recognized scientist in railway engineering dynamics. He established a new theory system for study of modern rail system dynamics, including the well-known vehicle–track coupled dynamics and train–track–bridge interactive dynamics, which has been widely applied to practical railway engineering, mostly for high-speed railway network in China. He served as the Chief Scientist of China National Key Basic Research Program (973 Plan) on High-speed Rail Infrastructures. He received the First-class and the Second-class National Science and Technology Progress Awards by State Council of China in 2005 and in 2009, respectively. In 2006, he received the Prize for Scientific and Technological Innovation by Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (Hong Kong) and Chang Jiang Scholars Achievement Award by Chinese Ministry of Education. He is also the owner of the Chinese Young Scientist Prize.

Professor Zhai is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Rail Transportation published by Taylor & Francis Group and the Editor-in-Chief of Railway Engineering Science published by Springer Nature. He also serves as a trustee of International Association for Vehicle System Dynamics and the vice President of the Chinese Society for Vibration Engineering.