He received his Ph.D. from Penn State (2005). After a short-term working as Research Associate, he joined Saint-Gobain High Performance Research Center in Northborough, MA. He had spent his 8-year career there working as internal technical scientist in charge the application of thermodynamics and kinetics to various materials R&D projects. He switched back to academia as Assistant Professor in Florida International University (FIU) in 2013 and joined WPI in 2017. He received the TMS FMD Young Leaders Professional Development Award in 2016 and ONR summer faculty fellowship in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Dr. Zhong has more than 36 peer-reviewed journal papers published/accepted, 2 book chapters, and 2 patents. His research is currently supported by Department of Energy (DOE), American Chemical Society (ACS), and Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC).