Dr. Zhu studied Physics at Nanjing University, received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab before he returned back to his Alma Mater. 

In 2013, Dr. Jia Zhu founded Zlab at College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University. In 2023, he  is appointed as the founding Dean at School of Sustainable Energy and Resources , Nanjing University.

He is elected fellow of Royal Socieity of Chemistry, and Optica(formerly OSA) for his pionneering works to interfacial solar desalination and major contributions to nanophotonics. He  has received several prestigious awards including: Xplorer Prize, Tan Kah Kee Young Scientist Award, OSA Young Investigator Award, MIT Tech Review TR35 award, Division of Inorganic Chemistry Yong Investigator Award (American Chemical Society), Gold Medal of Graduate Student Award (Material Research Society).

He has published over 160 papers in prestigious journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Photonics, Nature Materials, Nature Energy, Nature Nanotech., Nature Water, Nature Chemical Engineering, NSR, Science Advances, PNAS, Joule, Nano Lett., Advanced Materials, etc.