Yanchun Zhou is a leading scientist at Aerospace Research Institute of Materials & Processing Technology. He obtained his BSc in Ceramics from Tsinghua University in 1985 and PhD in Metals and Heat Treatment from Institute of Metal Research (IMR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1991. He was a post doctoral associate at Material Research Center, University of Missouri-Rolla from 1992 to 1994. He was promoted a full professor of ceramics at IMR-CAS in 1994 and served as Chair of High-performance Ceramic Division IMR-CAS from 2001-2010.
He is Academician of World Academy of Ceramics and Fellow of the American Ceramic Society. He serves as Principle Editor of Journal of Materials Research, Vice Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Materials Science & Technology, Associate Editor of Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Associate Editor of International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology, Editor of Journal of Asian Ceramic Society, and an editorial board member of International Materials Reviews, Ceramics International, Journal of Ceramic Society of Japan, Journal of Advance Ceramics and Chinese Journal of Materials Research. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the World Academy of Ceramics (2010-2014), and a member of the Nominating Committee of the World Academy of Ceramics (2010-2014), Chairman of the International Committee of the Engineering Ceramic Division of the American Ceramic Society (2010-2011), a member of Ross Coffin Purdy Award Committee of the American Ceramic Society (2011-2015).
He has published over 320 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, been co-author of 2 books, co-editor of 5 proceedings, and holds 30 Chinese patents. He has an H-index of 39 with more than 5900 citations. He has presented over 30 keynote or invited talks at international conferences. He is the recipient of the CAS president award for outstanding graduate student in 1991, top prize of the Technological Achievement from CAS in 1998, third prize of Natural Science from CAS in 1999, National Outstanding Young Scientist Foundation Award in 1999, second prize of Technical Invention from CAS in 2001, top prize of Natural Science from Liaoning Province in 2005, Excellent Teaching Award from CAS in 2009, and Global Star Award from the American Ceramic Society in 2010. He was elected Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics in 2009 and Fellow of the American Ceramic Society in 2010. His current interests and fields of research are designing, understanding the structural-property relations of damage tolerant ceramics for high and ultrahigh temperature applications.