Members

Prof Guochun Zhao is now the Mok Sau-King Professor and Chair Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), and the Chair Professor of Changjiang Scholar Scheme in the Department of Geology, Northwest University (Xi’An). He earned Bachelor and Master degrees from Changchun University of Earth Sciences (now merged into Jilin University) in 1985 and 1988, respectively. Thereafter, he had worked in Changchun University of Earth Sciences until 1996 when he went to Curtin University to pursue a PhD degree. In 2000, he received his PhD degree with “Outstanding PhD Thesis Award” from Curtin University. Since August 2000, he has been working in the Department of Earth Sciences at HKU.

Prof Zhao’s main research fields are metamorphic petrology, Precambrian geology and supercontinents in Earth’s history. His main research findings include discoveries of two 1.95-1.85 billion years old Himalaya-type continental collisional belts, named the Khondalite Belt and the Trans-North China Orogen in the North China Craton, and he is the first person to propose that global-scale 2.0-1.8 billion years collisional events led to the assembly of the pre-Rodinia supercontinent, later named “Columbia” or “Nuna”. Recently, as Principal Investigator (PI), he undertook a NSFC Major Project entitled “Reconstructions of East Asian continents in Pangea” in which he used geological and Paleomagnetic data to reconstruct the Paleogeographic locations of East Asian blocks from the breakup of supercontinent Rodinia at ~750 Ma to the assembly of supercontinent Pangea at 250-220 Ma.

Since 1998, Professor Zhao has published more than 520 papers, cited for 75,036 times with H-index = 145 (by May 2025). He has received many awards, prizes and honors, including State Natural Science Award (2nd Class; First Awardee; 2014), Fellow of Geological Society of America (2014), Highly Cited Researcher (2014-2024), Outstanding Researcher Award of the University of Hong Kong (2016), 29th Khwarizmi International Award (First Class; 2016), Chair Professorship of Cheung Kong (Changjiang) Scholars Program (2017), TWAS Prize in Earth, Astronomy and Space Sciences from The World Academy of Science (2018), Member (Academician) of Chinese Academy of Science (2019), Member (Fellow) of The World Academy of Science for the Advancement in Developing Countries (2020), Distinguished Research Achievement Award (DRAA), The University of Hong Kong (2021), and Member of Hong Kong Academy of Sciences (2023). Professor Zhao was the Editor-in-Chief of Precambrian Research (2010-2021), a leading international journal in earth sciences. In the 2025 Best Scientists Rankings, compiled by Research.com, Professor Guochun ZHAO stands 6th in the world and 1st in China (and also Asia) in Earth Sciences.

Website of Prof Zhao at The University of Hong Kong

May 2025