1982年1月毕业于山西矿业学院工程力学专业，1992年于同济大学获结构工程专业博士学位，任国际岩石力学学会中国国家小组成员，中国岩石力学与工程学会副理事长，山西省岩石力学与工程学会理事长；1993年批准享受政府特殊津贴。
长期从事岩石力学和采矿工程等领域的研究，先后获国家技术发明二等奖2项、省部级自然科学、技术发明、科技进步一等奖5项，在国内外著名学术刊物发表论文300多篇，出版专著5部。揭示了煤岩体在应力作用下的渗透性规律，提出了煤层渗透性分类方法，制定了煤体导水特性分类的国家煤炭行业标准，在国内外建立了第一个岩体变形与气体渗流的耦合教学模型及其解法。发明了盐类矿床群井致裂控制水溶开采方法，使易溶和难溶两大类盐矿开采实现了重大技术变革，发明了水力割缝强化低渗透煤层瓦斯抽放技术与成套装备，已用于煤矿瓦斯灾害治理，可望从根本上解决我国煤矿瓦斯灾害防治与煤层气开采的重大技术难题。
Prof. Zhao obtained his bachelor degree of Engineering Mechanics in Shanxi college of Mining in Jan. 1982 and Ph.D. degree of Structure Engineering in Tongji University in 1992. He is board member of International Society for Rock Mechanics, vice-present of Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME), and president of the Shanxi Province of Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering. He has enjoyed government particular subsidy since 1993.
His interests focus on rock mechanics and mining engineering. He twice won the second prize of national technological innovation and five times won province awards involving in natural science, technological innovation and technology progress. Prof. Zhao has authored/co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed journal contributions and wrote five books about the theory and practice of geo-energy and geo-resource development. His contributions involve in revealing permeability evolution of rock and coal mass at triaxial stresses and further proposing the method for permeability classification in coalbed to set national coal industry standard in classification of water conductivity of coal mass. He established the first mathematical model coupled by rock mass deformation and gas seepage and its solution. In industrial technology, he invented rock salt mining method via injecting water into multiple well connected by hydrofracturing, and method and outfits for coal bed methane efficient extraction in underground mine work face. The former method is a technological revolution in mining easily and hard dissolved rock salt. The latter method fundamentally solve the problem of gas disasters in underground mine and coalbed methane extraction.
