Zhao received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Lehigh University. She is a recipient of the Rossin Doctoral Fellowship and the 2008 and 2009 SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics) Scholarship. Her interdisciplinary research areas include energy-based device technology, developing light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for solid state lighting and photovoltaics. Dr. Zhao has published more than 40 refereed journal articles with over 2300 citations. She holds four patents on LED technologies.