His research focuses on experimental condense matter physics: optical properties of semiconductors and nanostructures, exciton dynamics in bulk and low-dimensional systems under different excitation conditions, and nonlinear optical properties of novel luminescent/fluorescent materials. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include courses on experimental physics research.

Zheng has a B.Sc. in physics from the University of Science and Technology of China and a Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong, where he also worked as a research assistant/associate. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he was a lecturer at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.