Dr. Jesse Zhu is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, at the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada. He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Chemical Institute of Canada and a registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.

Prof. Zhu received his B. Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China in 1982 and then worked as a Junior Lecturer at Tsinghua for 2 years. Between 1984-88 he pursued graduate studies in Chemical Engineering at the University of British Columbia, under the supervision of Prof. John Grace. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in early 1988, he worked as a Research Scientist for two years at the Amsterdam Shell Research Laboratory. In 1990 he returned to the University of British Columbia as Research Associate/Sessional Lecturer. In 1993 he became an Assistant Professor at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. In a short period of six years, Prof. Zhu attained full professorship and went on to win several research awards. In 1999, he established the Powder Technology Research Centre, in collaboration with several colleagues, and serves as its director until its further expansion into the Particle Technology Research Western, for which he continuously serves as the director. At the turn of the new century, he was also named the senior ORDCF Research Chair on Ultrafine Powder Technology. In 2004, he became a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Powder Technology Applications. He is also a very active member of the Chemical Engineering profession, serving as Technical Program Chair for the 48th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in 1998, Co-Chair of the 7th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized Beds in 2002, and Regional Program Chair for the 5th World Congress on Particle Technology in 2006.

Prof. Zhu's main research interests are in the fluid-particle systems, powder technology and related research areas. He has been very active in this very dynamic research area since 1982 and has published over 160 refereed journal articles. Valuable industrial experience has been accumulated while working in the Royal-Dutch Shell Group and through collaborative research work with Canadian and international companies. Major research contributions include the establishment of an important concept of high-density riser fluidized beds, the milestone work on the comprehensive characterization of downer reactors, the studies on scaleup of circulating fluidized beds, the development of new technologies. These novel techniques include the effective fluidization of ultrafine powders and their applications to ultrafine powder coating, pulmonary drug delivery, selective laser sintering, and tablet coating, the newly patented powder mixing methods for many powder processed such as powder metallurgy, the application of high-velocity liquid-solid and gas-liquid-solid fluidized beds to the biochemical and environmental engineering processes, such as the economic recovery of proteins from waste streams and a high-efficiency wastewater treatment system. His current research activities include circulating fluidized bed riser and downer reactors, fluidization and handling of cohesive, fine and ultrafine powders and its applications to pulmonary drug delivery, powder coating, selective laser sintering  and powder metallurgy, (gas-)liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed and its application to chemical and biochemical processes and wastewater treatment, gasification of biomass and solid wastes and wastewater treatment.

During the last 14 years at the University of Western Ontario, he has made significant contributions as a teacher, researcher and student faculty advisor. Prof. Zhu is a very productive researcher who supervises one of the largest research teams in this faculty and on average publishes more than 15 fully refereed journal articles each year. In addition, Prof. Zhu is a very enthusiastic teacher, and one particularly active in training a large number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. A total of 50 graduate students including 23 PhD students have graduated under his direction. His past graduate students and post doctoral fellows are now working in major chemical companies (e.g. DuPont, Kellogg, SardiOil, Dofasco, Westinghouse, Solvay, Honda, Suncor and General Electric), research institute (e.g. Particulate Solids Research Institute, Atomic Energy of Canada, National Research Council of Canada and Chinese Academy of Science), and nine as faculty members in Canadian and foreign universities.