Dr. Shizhen Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on the environmental behavior and effects of emerging atmospheric pollutants. She obtained her PhD from Lancaster University, UK, under the supervision of Prof. Kevin C. Jones, supported by the China Scholarship Council and Unilever.

Dr. Zhao has received the Gold Award for Young Scientists in Ecological and Environmental Science from the Guangdong Environmental Science Society (2024), and has been selected for the Guangdong Distinguished Young Scholars Fund, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Pearl River Talents Program for Overseas Young Professionals.

She has led more than ten research projects and published 27 first- or corresponding-author papers, including in Nature Communications and Environmental Science & Technology. She serves on the early-career editorial boards of Environmental Science & Technology, The Innovation Geoscience, Emerging Contaminants, and Geochimica (in Chinese).