Jenny Zhao is ISF Senior Research Fellow at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, and Needham Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

In 2024-25, she was named a Berggruen Fellow at the Berggruen Institute China Center in Peking University.

Her research explores the intellectual traditions of ancient Greece and early China, with particular interests in moral education and the cultural foundations of teaching and learning. Through comparative study of Chinese and Western traditions, her work examines how different civilisations have understood education, character formation, and the cultivation of ethical life. Alongside her academic research, she is actively engaged in public scholarship and educational initiatives that connect Chinese and Greek thought with contemporary discussions of culture, education, and global dialogue.