Zhou Jilin, born in 1969, received his bachelor’s from the Department of Astronomy at Nanjing University in 1990 and stayed on for teaching after earning his doctorate in celestial mechanics at the same department in 1995. He was appointed an associate professor in 1998, a full professor in 2003, and a doctoral supervisor in 2004.

He was a deputy chair of the Department of Astronomy from 2000 to 2008 in charge of teaching. Since 2010, he has been serving as secretary of the CPC committee of the School of Astronomy and Space Science. He was a member of the Celestial Mechanics Commission of the International Astronomical Union from 2003 to 2009.

At present, he is director of the Celestial Mechanics and Satellite Dynamics Committee of Chinese Astronomical Society, an associate editor-in-chief of Acta Astronomica Sinica, an editorial board member of SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, and Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. He was a visiting scholar both at UC Santa Cruz and the University of Cambridge.

He has undertaken over 10 research projects including those of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, subprojects of the 973 Program supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published more than 50 papers, over 40 of them in SCI journals.

He collaborated with his colleagues in compiling Introduction to Modern Celestial Mechanics (as the second author). He was many times invited to speak on international conferences. In 2004, with his research on “A mapping method and its application in the solar system dynamics,” he won the second prize (first on the awardee list) for the Natural Science Award by the Ministry of Education(MOE) and selected into the New Century Outstanding Talents Program of the MOE. He was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 2009.

Fundamentals of Celestial Mechanics, a degree course for undergraduates;

Introduction to Non-Linear Dynamics, a degree course for graduate students.

His research focuses on the formation and dynamics of extra-solar planetary systems.