Prof Zhao is the president of Northeastern University and member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Also being a member of the Chinese Association for Science & Technology Organization & Construction Committee and vice chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Association for Science & Technology, chairman of the Liaoning Mechanical Engineering Society, chief expert of the National Key R&D Program "Key Scientific Issues of Transformational Technology", and the chairman of the Teaching Steering committee of mechanical Major of the Ministry of Education. He has been engaged in the research work in the direction of intelligent precision manufacturing for a long time. He has presided over nearly 40 programs such as, the national 973 project, the national "transformative technology" major project, the 863 project, the national major science & technology project, the national natural science foundation key & general projects, and provincial projects. He had been granted more than 20 patents. He has also published more than 200 academic papers at home and abroad, and from which he won many science & technology awards, as well as teaching awards, including Talent Award of Jilin Province and Young & Middle-Aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions of Jilin Province.