Jian Zhao is currently a professor of rock mechanics, mining and tunnelling at Monash University Australia, and the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences. He obtained PhD from the Royal School of Mines at Imperial College London, worked as a faculty at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and a professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne of Switzerland. He has served as a civil and mining engineering consultant globally, and as company director and principal, including independent director for public company of resources and minerals.