Professor Zuoyan Zhu has been with the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) since 1965, rising through the ranks from a research assistant to professor and finally director of the institute. He graduated from Peking University and continued his education at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he studied cell and developmental biology. He subsequently served as a visiting scientist at the University of Southampton and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund laboratories in London, England, and then as a research scientist at Genetics Institute, in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Zhu was a Hill Visiting Professor at the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Minnesota before moving to the Center of Marine Biotechnology, Maryland Biotechnology Institute of the University of Maryland System, where he served as research professor and faculty member. In 1997 he was elected an academician of the CAS. Professor Zhu has served as the director of the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology in China and as an advisory committee member of the China Basic Research Development Program. His term serving on the Scientific Committee of the China High Tech Development Program ended a few years ago.