PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Guangtao Zhai

Also known as G. Zhai, G.J. Zhai, Guang-Tao Zhai, 翟广涛

Guangtao Zhai is a multimedia signal-processing researcher whose work links human visual perception with image-quality assessment. He earned engineering degrees from Shandong University and a Ph.D. from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, then worked at McMaster University and Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. In 2020, he coauthored a survey of perceptual image quality, became an IEEE Fellow in 2025, and led an fMRI study whose feature-fusion approach improved ResNet image-quality assessment by 14.29%. As of October 2026, he is a distinguished professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Editor-in-Chief of Displays, chair of the Shanghai Image and Graphics Association, and a member of an IEEE CASS technical committee.

Now at
Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai Image and Graphics Association
Works
1,006
Citations
24,637
h-index
75
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2001–2009

    Degrees at Shandong and SJTU

    He earns B.E. and M.E. degrees from Shandong University in 2001 and 2004, then a Ph.D. from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2009.

  2. 2008–2009

    Visiting student at McMaster

    At McMaster University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he is a visiting student from 2008 to 2009.

  3. 2010–2012

    Postdoctoral fellow at McMaster

    From 2010 to 2012, he is a postdoctoral fellow in McMaster University's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

  4. 2012–2013

    A Humboldt fellowship in Germany

    From 2012 to 2013, he holds a Humboldt Research Fellowship with the Institute of Multimedia Communication and Signal Processing at Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

  5. 2020

    A survey of visual quality

    In 2020, he coauthors Perceptual image quality assessment: a survey with Xiongkuo Min.

  6. 2025

    An IEEE Fellowship

    IEEE names him a 2025 Fellow for contributions to perceptual quality assessment and enhancement of visual media.

  7. 2025

    An fMRI study of image quality

    In 2025, his team publishes a Patterns study that decodes image-quality information from fMRI signals and proposes multi-layer feature fusion for visual quality prediction. The approach improves image-quality assessment performance on ResNet by 14.29% on the BID dataset.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and AI Lab scientist

    In 2025, he is a Distinguished Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a Jointly Appointed Scientist at the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. As of October 2026, he is a distinguished professor of the Electronics Engineering Department at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Editor-in-Chief of Displays, and chair of the Shanghai Image and Graphics Association. He serves on IEEE CASS's Multimedia Systems and Applications Technical Committee, and his research interests include multimedia signal processing and perceptual signal processing.

Career

  1. Since 2005Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityDistinguished Professor
  2. NowShanghai Image and Graphics AssociationChair
  3. 2025–2026Shanghai Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryJointly Appointed Scientist
  4. 2023–2026Peng Cheng Laboratory
  5. 2012–2013Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-NürnbergHumboldt Research Fellow
  6. 2011–2025Shanghai Key Laboratory of Digital Media Processing and Transmission
  7. 2008–2012McMaster UniversityVisiting Student, Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

  1. 2009Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityPh.D.
  2. 2004Shandong UniversityB.E. and M.E.

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorateIncludes Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 84% of people shaping AI with recorded undergraduate and doctoral schools changed institutions for their doctorate. Across 2,116 people with both an undergraduate degree and a doctorate recorded, we trace which undergraduate schools feed which doctoral programs, how often students stay at the same school, and how paths differ by birth-country region.
  2. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  4. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. 18th ICSPS 2026｜Signal Processing Systems 第十八届信号处理系统国际会议 icsps.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  2. Rankless | Perceptual image quality assessment: a survey rankless.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  3. IEEE 2025新晋Fellow名单正式公布 – IEEE中国 cn.ieee.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  4. SJTU Professor Guangtao Zhai’s Team Reveals How the Human Brain “Fills In” Blurry Images en.sjtu.edu.cn. Checked 22 October 2026.
  5. Neural mechanisms of visual quality perception and adaptability in the visual pathway pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Checked 22 October 2026.
  6. Guangtao Zhai | IEEE CASS ieee-cas.org. Checked 22 October 2026.
  7. ZHAI GUANGTAO--Home--Home faculty.sjtu.edu.cn. Checked 22 October 2026.
  8. Multimedia Systems and Applications (MSA) | IEEE CASS ieee-cas.org. Checked 22 October 2026.