Zhou Zhiyan, male, Han nationality, is a native of Haining, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Geology Department of Nanjing University in 1954 and did postgraduate work at the Nanjing Geologic-Paleontologic Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and remained there as researcher. He was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1995.
Zhou is an expert in paleophytology and assisted in the compilation of comprehensive monographs on soil strata and categories of fossils.