ZHONG Zhihua, a distinguished Chinese vehicle engineering specialist, served as President of Tongji University from 2016 to 2018. He was elected member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2005.

ZHONG was a member of the 9th National People's Congress and 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He served as a member of the expert committee in the field of "advanced manufacturing and automation technology" of the national "Tenth Five Year" 863 plan, a panelist of the Discipline Evaluation Panel of the AcademicDegreeCommittee of the State Council, and member of the Engineering Department of the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Education. At present, he is a member of the Party group and vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. In 1988, he obtained his Ph.D. in engineering from Linköping University, Sweden.

ZHONG has been engaged in the research and application of automobile design and manufacturing technology. His main research fields are automobile collision safety technology, body stamping technology, and modular lightweight automobile technology. He has presided over a number of national projects, international cooperation projects, and major research and development projects of domestic and multinational corporations, including theoretical and methodological researches, research and development of engineering software, research and development of manufacturing processes and equipment, and research and development of new products. He put forward many new theories and methods and developed many new technologies, new equipment, and new products. Prof. ZHONG has published over 120 papers and three books. His papers included in SCI have been cited 200-odd times.

ZHONG won one First Prize and one Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award, two First Prizes at provincial and ministerial levels for scientific and technological progress, two Second Prizes, one ministerial-level Second Prize for technological invention and natural science, and six invention patents. He won the Youth Award of Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Prize, the First Prize of the General Motors China Scientific and Technological Achievement Award in 2000, and Hunan Guangzhao Scientific and Technological Award, and more than a dozen other awards and honorary titles.

His bio is available on the official website of CAE:

http://www.cae.cn/cae/html/main/colys/28517943.html