Dr Zhigang Lu is a Senior Lecturer of Computer Science, an Academic Program Advisor with the School of Computer, Data and Mathematical Sciences, Western Sydney University (WSU) and a member of WSU Artificial Intelligence Research Group (AIRG). He is also an Adjunct Lecturer with James Cook University since August 2024.

His academic career began as a continuing Lecturer of Information Technology at James Cook University from January 2023, where he was recognised as one of the best lecturers based on student evaluations. He played a leading role in developing a new cyber security major to refresh the Master of Information Technology program, which is set to launch in Trimester 1, 2025.

Prior to that, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub, Macquarie University from Jan 2020, working closely with Prof Dali Kaafar, Dr Hassan Asghar and Dr Dinusha Vatsalan. He was funded by the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub, in partnership with the Defence Science & Technology Group and Data61-CSIRO, through the Next Generation Technologies Fund.

He obtained his PhD (supervised by Prof Hong Shen and Prof Michael Sheng, funded by the Adelaide Graduate Research Scholarship) and MPhil (supervised by Prof Hong Shen and A/Prof Nickolas Falkner) degrees from the University of Adelaide (now Adelaide University) and BEng degree from Xidian University, all in computer science. He was one of the two recipients of the University Master by Research Medal in 2015. He won a First Award in the National Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modelling (Shaanxi Division) in 2009 and a Third Award in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC Intramural Competition) in 2008.

He also worked as a Data Scientist in the industry for three months in early 2022.