Faculty Profile

ZHU Tao received the B.Eng. degree in mechanical engineering and automation from the Southwest Petroleum University in China in 2007, the M.Eng. and Ph.D. degree in railway vehicle engineering from Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) in 2012. In May 2013, Dr. Zhu started his career and served as an assistant professor in the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power at SWJTU. Since 2017, he has received an associate professor in the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power. He was selected as the reserve candidate for the academic and technical leader of Sichuan Province in 2021. He studied at the University of Michigan and George Mason University in the United States as a visiting scholar in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Dr. Zhu has long been engaged in scientific research and teaching in the fields of locomotive and rolling stock structural design, life prediction and safety evaluation, focusing on solving the structural strength and lightweight of locomotives and rolling stock, residual life evaluation of rolling stock, train collision dynamics, load inversion theory, train wheel and rail issues such as force prediction and safety assessment. Presided over 1 National Natural Science Foundation project, 1 National Key R&D Program Project (sub-task), 1 National Science and Technology Support Program (sub-task), 2 Sichuan Science and Technology Program Projects; main research project of National Natural Science Foundation of China 4 Projects, 3 sub-tasks of the national key R&D plan project, 1 key project of China Railway Corporation; presided over more than 40 enterprise cooperation projects, participated in more than 60 enterprise cooperation projects. In Vehicle System Dynamics, Proc IMechE Part F: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit, Engineering Failure Analysis, Applied Mathematics and Computation, International Journal of Rail Transportation, Transport, Journal of the Railway Society, Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Journal of Transportation Engineering, Engineering Mechanics, etc. Published more than 100 scientific papers (including acceptance) in foreign journals, including 46 first/corresponding authors, more than 20 authorized invention patents, more than 10 utility model patents, and 3 software copyrights. The collision dynamics and safety protection technology of rail trains won the 2020 China Transportation Association Special Award. He is currently a member of the Second Locomotive and Rolling Stock Technical Committee of the Ministry of Rail Transit, a young editorial member of the Journal of Transportation Engineering, a senior member of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, and a member of the International Standards Alliance for Straddle Monorail Systems.