Academic visitor to Imperial College London from 2006 till 2008.Her research interest is on durability of concrete structure and corrosion-induced concrete cracking. Prof. Zhao is a member of China Concrete Society and Asia Concrete Federal. She has been awarded 15 research grants by the Chinese government, and has published more than 50 papers, co-authored 2 books and co-edited 3 conference proceedings. She was also awarded the National Award for Science and Technology Progress in 2008 and the Science & Technology Award of Zhejiang Province in 2006.