After eight years of teaching and research in Biochemical Engineering and Fermentation Technology at the Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhang went to the University of Leeds as a Ph.D. student to study in Microbiology. He joined the Linhardt Group at the University of Iowa in 1999, after he worked in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) for one year as a research associate. Zhang moved to RPI with the Linhardt Group in 2003. Fuming Zhang has published more than 130 research papers and received several scientific achievement awards (such as Research Excellent Award, RPI, 2012; the Zhejiang Provincial Government Scientific Achievement Awards, 1993). He serves editorial board members for Journal of Biomedical Technology and Research (since 2013) and Journal of Biotechnology and Bioengineering (since 2014)