Dr. Zhou was born in Shanghai, China. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Clemson University. He then worked at University of Virginia for 12 years before joined Sandia in 2006. He currently is a principal member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, California.

Dr. Zhou is a member of the Editorial Board for The Scientific Pages of Nanotechnology and Journal of Materials Science and Research. He is also employed by University of Texas at El Paso as a guest processor to advise Ph. D. student.

His interdisciplinary research focuses on developing high fidelity interatomic potentials, and applying these potentials in molecular dynamics simulations to study a variety of material properties including defects in semiconductors, hydrogen embrittlement, and kinetics of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of hydrogen storage materials. The potentials he developed have been widely used by researchers all over the world.