Zhaofei was born in Anhui, China. He obtained his PhD in institute of chemistry, Chinese Academies of Sciences (ICCAS) in Song Ye Lab leaning N-heterocyclic Carbene catalysis. After two postdoc positions in Chenliang Su and Ming-Yu Ngai lab,  he joined Lovinger lab doing research about Synthetic Physical Organic Chemistry (SPOC) in June, 2025. Outside of the lab, Zhaofei likes to watch soccer and tennis games and spend time with his family.