Wenzhong Zhou is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida and a faculty member of the university’s Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems Center, or RISES. Prior to joining UCF, he served as a principal engineer at Westinghouse Electric Company, an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, an assistant professor at the City University of Hong Kong, and a postdoctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Zhou directs the M³ Nuclear Systems Laboratory (Multiphysics • Multiscale • Multiphase for Advanced Nuclear Energy), which focuses on the development of multiscale and multiphysics modeling and simulation methods for nuclear fuels and materials, reactor safety and thermal-hydraulics. His research supports both existing light water reactors and advanced nuclear energy systems, including small modular reactors (SMRs), microreactors, liquid metal reactors (LMRs), molten salt reactors (MSRs), and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). Zhou has established a strong record of sponsored research as principal investigator and co-principal investigator on projects funded by government agencies, universities, industry and international collaborations.

His research has been published in leading journals across thermal sciences, materials, and nuclear engineering, including Nature Communications, Applied Thermal Engineering, and the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, as well as prominent nuclear energy journals such as Nuclear Engineering and Design, Annals of Nuclear Energy, and Progress in Nuclear Energy. He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and over 50 conference papers, and his work has been widely cited by researchers in the fields of nuclear engineering, thermal sciences, and energy systems. His research contributions have been recognized in major reference works, including the Handbook of Materials Modeling and the Handbook of Generation IV Nuclear Reactors. He has also co-edited three scholarly books and serves as an associate editor for multiple journals. In addition, he has served as a track chair or co-chair for the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE) for six consecutive years.