Dr Zhou completed her PhD research on life cycle assessment at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She then undertook postdoctoral research on the built environment at two institutes: the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS, a joint program between the Singapore government and UC Berkeley) and the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) at the University of Melbourne. She pursues research through a combination of laboratory experiment, field monitoring, data analysis and modelling. Her contribution to life cycle assessment and sustainable built environment has been acknowledged by many international awards and invitations. Some highlights include Green Talents awarded by The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, research exchange fellowship provided by the Lloyd's Register Foundation, and forum invitations from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Universitas 21 network.

Indoor Environmental Quality, emphasizing the intersections with following topics: pollutant dynamics (emission strength and deposition characterization), climate change (e.g. impacts from outdoor haze and bushfire smoke), human feedback (e.g. subjective perception and biometric response), and new monitoring techniques (e.g. UV-LIF measurement for bioaerosols, low-cost monitors); Life Cycle Analysis and Risk Assessment, focusing on fundamental research topics (e.g. system boundary, data representative, sensitivity and uncertainty assessment), and also its application to the built environments, water and wastewater management.