Zongbao Zhao

Biography

Prof. Zongbao (Kent) ZHAO received PhD from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, China (1998). His postdoctoral training was accomplished in USA in the fields of bioorganic chemistry and metabolic engineering at University of Minnesota (2001) and University of Texas at Austin (2003). Prof. Zhao joined Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) in November 2003 and is the leader of the Biomass Conversion Technology Group (Group 1816) in the Institute. He was supported by the CAS “100-Talents” Program (2004) and won national science fund for distinguished young scholars (2013). His research interests include energy biotechnology, molecular microbiology and synthetic biology, with special focuses on engineering cell factories for the production of highly-reduced metabolites such as fatty acid derivatives and terpenoids. He has co-authored over 160 papers, 4 book chapters and filed over 50 patents.

Research Interest

The major theme of our research is to develop technologies for conversion of biomass into biofuels and bio-based chemicals. For this purpose, projects may fall into one or multiple subjects listed below, Biochemical engineering; Biomass conversion; Biomass-to-biodiesel; Chemical biology; Cofactor engineering; Green chemistry; Metabolic engineering; Microbial lipid production; Molecular microbiology; Process optimization and integration; Synthetic biotechnology, Systems biology.