Ziyi Zhang is currently a jointly appointed Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and East China Normal University, where he is based at the Global Shanghai Research Center.

He received his Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers University. He has studied and conducted research at Northeastern University, Boston University, The University of Hong Kong, George Mason University, Columbia University, Harvard University, and Princeton University. He has also undertaken academic exchanges with the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Office at Geneva.