Dr. Zhao received his Bachelor’s degree in Physics and his Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Engineering, both from Peking University. After graduation, Dr. Zhao conducted his postdoctoral research at the College of Engineering at Peking University. Prior to joining the City University of Hong Kong, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Zhao’s current research focuses on chemically disordered materials (high-entropy materials) through a combination of computational materials science and machine learning techniques. Specifically, his group aims to understand surface effects, defect thermodynamics, and defect evolution in chemically disordered materials under deformation or irradiation conditions. For this purpose, different simulation techniques at different scales are concurrently or sequentially employed.