Dr. ZHAO received his B.S. degree in 1984 at the Department of Chemistry, Jilin University. Afterward, he went ahead for the graduate studies in the Institute of Theoretical Chemistry at Jilin University and obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at 1987 and 1992, respectively. At the year of 1992, he joined the Chemistry Faculty of the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials (formerly as the Key Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Molecular Spectroscopy of Ministry of Education) at the Jilin University. In 1998, he was promoted to full professor in the State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials. Since May 2001, he became a doctoral tutor in the laboratory.
He visited Prof. Yukihiro Ozaki's group at the Kwansei-Gakuin University in Japan as a visiting scholar in May 1996, and as a visiting professor in November 1999 and April 2011, respectively. As a postdoctoral fellowship in the City College of New York, he joined Prof. John R. Lombardi's group from August 2001 to July 2003. In December 2009, he went to the Kangwon National University as a visiting professor.
Now, he is deputy director of Committee of Chinese Light Scattering and China Instrument Society of instrument Branch, editorship of  magazine “Spectroscopy and Spectral Analysis” and “Chinese Light Scattering”.

Concerned with the vibrational spectroscopy and spectroscopic analysis, especially on the field of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy. The novel SERS substrates of semiconductive nanoparticles are studied, as well as the SERS bio- and envorinmental analysis techniques.