Hongtao Zhu obtained a B.Eng. in 1993, an M.Eng. in 1996, and a Ph.D. in 2000 from Northeastern University, China. After working at Shanghai Jiao Tong University as a postdoctoral research fellow for two years, he joined the University of Wollongong in 2002. Now, he is an associate professor at the School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. He is substantially engaged with professional communities. He is an assessor for ARC, Australia; National Science Centre, Poland; the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development, Chile; and the Czech Science Foundation, Czech. He is an editorial board member of the journal ‘Advances in Materials Science and Engineering’,  ‘‘Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology’’ and 'Jurnal Tribologi’ as well as a guest journal editor for CMS, MMTB, SRI, IJMPT, IJSurfSE and Metal. His major research interests include tribology, wheel and rail interface, advanced manufacturing, and computational material sciences.