Dr. Hua Zhou is a staff physicist at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Argonne National Laboratory. He has managed and developed scientific programs dedicated for in-situ/operando and real-time X-ray studies of advanced materials synthesis, functionality and applications, in particular on surface/interface phenomena and processes in complex environments (e.g. thin film deposition of epitaxial nanostructures and heterostructures, emergent physics of strongly correlated condensed matters, versatile solid/liquid/gas interfaces for electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems) at the APS since 2011. He has extensive research experience using synchrotron-based X-ray techniques to characterize and uncover surface/interface structural modifications and dynamics of epitaxial thin films and heterostructures by using phase retrieval direct methods. Before he joined the APS, he was a postdoctoral fellow in National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory and in Chemical Science and Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science from University of Vermont in late 2007. His work and contributions on thin films/heterostructures and surface/interface X-ray scattering techniques have been featured in book chapters, reviewers and more than 160 peer-reviewed publications. He has presented more than 40 invited speeches in international conferences, universities and national labs. In 2018, he was awarded with the Gopal K. Shenoy Excellence in Beamline Science Award for his pioneering work in the field of synchrotron radiation studies of complex oxide thin film and heterostructures.