Yanchao Zhang received a bachelor's degree in computer science and technology from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 1999, a master's degree in computer science and technology from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2002, and a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from University of Florida in 2006. He is a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and the director of Cyber and Network Security Group (CNSG) at Arizona State University. 

His primary research is on security and privacy issues in computer and networked systems, with current focus areas in emerging wireless networks, mobile crowdsourcing and sensing, Internet-of-Things, social networking and computing, wireless/mobile systems for disabled people, big data analytics, mobile/wearable devices, wireless/mobile health, and AI. He is/was on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He received the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award in 2009 and am a fellow of  the IEEE for contributions to wireless and mobile security. He also chaired the 2017 IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS), the 2016 ARO-funded Workshop on Trustworthy Human-Centric Social Networking, and the 2015 NSF Workshop on Wireless Security.