Zhu is a distinguished professor of Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing. He served terms as Director of IGG-CAS and State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution. He is an author of more than 300 journal articles. He has pursued several distinct lines of research in paleomagnetism and geodynamics, including geomagnetic field reversal, paleointensity, magnetostratigraphy, and environmental magnetism. For example, his pacesetting work in magnetostratigraphic dating of early human settlements has dated the earliest human occupation in mainland East Asia at ~1.7 Ma, providing new insights into early human evolution. His efforts in exploring destruction of the North China Craton enable a significant advance in the understanding of continental evolution and plate tectonics. He was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, an academician of CAS, and a Fellow of TWAS. He was awarded the National Natural Science Award, the TWAS Prize in Earth Sciences, the Scientific and Technological Progress Prize of HLHL Foundation (Hong Kong), and the Young Scientist Award of China.