Chen Zhang is a professorate senior engineer and the Chief Engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute (Group) Co., Ltd. He has been awarded as the National Engineering Survey and Design Master of China in 2011. He is the Director of the Sludge Sub-Committee of Water and Wastewater Technical Committee at the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China (SAC), the Vice Chairman of the China Association for Engineering Construction Standardization (CECS), and the Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Urban Water Affairs Specialized Committee at the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China.

Chen Zhang has been engaged in the design and research of urban water supply and wastewater engineering for decades. He has presided over the Shanghai Bailonggang Wastewater Treatment Plant with the largest treatment scale in Asia, the Shanghai Shidongkou Wastewater Treatment Plant with the world’s largest integrated biological reactor and the first sludge drying and incineration plant in China, the Chongqing Jiguanshi Wastewater Treatment Plant which the most important environmental protection engineering project in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, and other major municipal projects.