Jizhong Zhou - Biography#

Born in 1959 in Shaoyang, China. Naturalized U.S. Citizen, 2001. B.S. (Entomology), 1981, M.S. (Mathematical ecology), 1984, Hunan Agricultural University; Ph.D. (Molecular Genetics), Washington State University, 1993. Postdoctoral Fellow, Michigan State University, 1993 ‐ 1995. Staff, Senior Staff, and Distinguished Staff Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1997-2005. George Lynn Cross Research Professor and Presidential Professor, University of Oklahoma, 2005-. Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology (AAM), Ecological Society of America, International Water Association (IWA), and American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Recipient: Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award, OU, 2024; Soil Science Research Award from Soil Science Society of America, 2022; BioCluster Grand Prize Award from International Society of Microbial Ecology (ISME)-IWA, 2022; 2021 Award for Excellence in Research in the Natural Sciences, OU; ASM Award for Environmental Research, 2019; DOE’s Lawrence Award, 2014; R&D 100 Award, 2009; Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, 2001; Environmental Sciences Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award, ORNL, 2001; Top #40 scientist worldwide and top #19 across US in Ecology & Evolution by Research.com; Only microbiologist among the 2021 Reuters List of World’s Top 1000 Climate Scientists; Top 0.1% global highly cited researcher by all three metrics based on Elservier’s Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, with >78K citations (GS), H-index, 148; 42 publications in Science, Nature-branded journals, and PNAS; Co-Chief Editor, mLife; Senior Editor, The ISME J, mBio, Microbiome; Chair, the interdisciplinary iFAST distinguished seminar series, viewed by people from >90 countries. Trained >380 graduate students, postdocs and visiting scholars, mainly are leaders in microbial ecology, particularly in China.

Awards to others: In 2017, CAME established an award under Zhou’s name: “Jizhong Zhou Award for Outstanding Microbial Ecologists” for recognizing distinguished achievements in microbial ecology across China; Zhou established three Fellowships at Tsinghua U (2015), Lanzhou U (2019), & OU (2017) for recognizing excellence for undergraduates, graduates and/or postdocs.