Dr. Zhao recently was selected to be the next dean of the College of Engineering. He was department chair of the Materials Science and Engineering, and was the Clark Distinguished Chair Professor at the University of Maryland – College Park.

Dr. Zhao brings a wealth of experience from an illustrious career spanning academia, industry, and government. Prior to his tenure at the University of Maryland, he was a professor at The Ohio State University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering and also served as a Program Director at the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy), managing $100M in projects to develop energy-efficient and green technologies. Before academia and government, Zhao was a Materials Scientist and project leader at GE Research Center for 12 years, inventing new materials and processes, predominately for gas turbines and jet engines.

His pioneering work in the design of advanced alloys and coatings, additive manufacturing, and high-throughput materials science methodologies, among other areas, has established him as a leader in the field, leading to the induction to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2023. In addition to many materials innovations, he pioneered the development of a diffusion-multiple approach and co-developed several materials property microscopy tools for accelerated materials discovery and development. He holds 49 US patents covering a range of materials, processes, and systems.

Some of his awards and honors include:

• Clark Distinguished Chair Professor at the University of Maryland, 2022
• Fellow of The Minerals, Metals, Materials Society, 2023
• J. Willard Gibbs Phase Equilibria Award from ASM International, 2023,
• Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, 2022

Have a question for Dean Zhao? You can e-mail him at engr-dean@uconn.edu.