Zhou Shunhua

Zhou Shunhua (; born 1964) is a distinguished professor at Tongji University, specializing in rail-transit and highspeed-railways. Zhou has been shortlisted as a candidate for the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2019 and 2023.

Life and career Zhou was born in Jiangshan, Zhejiang province. He attended Southwest Jiaotong University, where he received his bachelor's degree in tunnel and underground railway engineering in 1985, his master's degree in structural mechanics in 1988, and his PhD in bridge and tunnel engineering in 1997.

In 1988, Zhou joined the faculty of Shanghai Tiedao University (merged into Tongji University in 2000), serving successively as an assistant lecturer, lecturer, associate professor, and professor. Since 2000, he has been a professor and doctoral supervisor at the college of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University. He currently serves as the director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Rail Infrastructure Durability and System Safety and as an executive director of the China Railway Society.

Research Zhou's research is dedicated to advancing the safety of rail transit systems, particularly high-speed railways (HSR). He has developed technologies for millimeter-level deformation control of HSR subgrades in soft soils, and for non-speed-reduction underpassing construction beneath operating HSR lines. His research has been applied to major projects such as the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway and the Qinghai–Tibet railway.

According to public data, the "Technical Code for Highway and Municipal Engineering Underpassing High-speed Railway," edited by Zhou, has been adopted in approximately 6900 railway-related projects within five years of its publication. The standard has also been translated into English and adopted in regions including the European Union, Japan, Israel, and South Korea.

Awards and honors Zhou received the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) in 2016. He was awarded the State Technological Invention Award (Second Class) twice, in 2015 and 2018.

In 2022, his team received the "Beyond Engineering" Award from the International Tunneling and Underground Space Association (ITA) and the Grand Prize of the China Railway Society Science and Technology Award. In 2024, he won the First Class Prize of the China Railway Society Science and Technology Award. In 2025, he won the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Advancement.