Prof Liping Zhao got his PhD in 1989 from Nanjing Agricultural University and worked in Cornell University as visiting scholar from 1993-1995. He is currently a professor for microbiology and associate dean for School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is also the leader for the functional Metagenomics platform in Shanghai Center for Systems Biomedicine. He is a Board member of the International Society for Microbial Ecology. He is current editorial board member of Applied and Systematic Microbiology, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Journal of Molecular Medicine, etc.

His team is one of the first in China to apply molecular and genomic tools for systems understanding and predictive manipulation of the complex microbial communities in human and animal guts. They have published more than 30 papers in PNAS，ISME Journal，AEM，FEMS Microbiology Ecology etc. Their current focus is the interactions between nutrition and gut microbiota in onset and progression of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, and how traditional Chinese medicine and medicinal foods may modulate this relationship for achieving preventive healthcare.