Assoc Prof Zhu obtained her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2002, and is a senior scientist at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. She has been working in the field of musculoskeletal health for over 20 years, and in that time she has been involved in the running of several large clinical trials and longitudinal cohort studies in both Australia and China. Her major research interests include determinants of peak bone mass and bone and muscle health at older age, especially the roles of body composition, nutrition, endocrine and genetic factors. Her other research interesting including nutritional determinants of cardiovascular health and epigenetic mechanisms underlying metabolic bone disease. She has been involved in the publication of 7 book chapters and more than 100 original research articles in refereed journals. She is a faculty member of the ANZBMS Clinical Densitometry course, and is on the editorial board of Osteoporosis International.