Prof. Yong Zhang received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) in 1998. After two years of postdoctoral work at the Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), he then worked as a research fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2000 to 2004 as part of the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Alliance (SMA). He was recruited to the USTB as a professor, working at the State Key Laboratory (SKL) for Advanced Metals and Materials. In 2005, Dr. Zhang received an award from the Ministry of Education of China under the New Century Excellent Talents (NCET) in Universities program.

His main research interest is the development of new materials in bulk, film, and fiber form using the high-entropy and materials-genome-initiative (MGI) strategies. He has published over 180 papers and received an award for outstanding contributions to natural science in 2010 for his research on "strengthening and toughening bulk amorphous alloys," as well as an award for his work on "deformation mechanisms of amorphous composites" from Shanxi province in 2015.