Born and educated in Prague (Ph.D. 1963), Bazant joined Northwestern University in 1969; W.P. Murphy Professor (1990-) and simultaneously McCormick Institute Professor (2002-); Center for Geomaterials Director (1981-87).

Inducted to NAS, NAE, Am. Acad. of Arts & Sci., Royal Soc. London; to academies of Italy (Lincei), Japan, Austria, Spain, Czech Rep., Greece (Athens), India and Lombardy; also Academia Europaea, Eur. Acad. of Sci. & Arts. Honorary Member: ASCE, ASME, ACI, RILEM and 3 European soc; 7 honorary doctorates: Prague, Karlsruhe, Colorado, Milan, Lyon, Vienna, Ohio State; Austrian Cross of Honors for Science and Art (2016); ASME Medal; Timoshenko, Nadai and Warner Medals of ASME; von Karman, Freudenthal, Newmark, Biot, Mindlin and Croes Medals and Lifetime Achievement Award of ASCE; SES Prager Medal; RILEM L’Hermite Medal; Exner Medal (Austria); Torroja Medal (Madrid); Solin and Bazant Sr. Medals (Prague), etc; SES President (1993), founding president of IA-FramCoS (1992), IA-ConCreep (2001). In 2012, CSM established in Prague ZP Bazant Prize for Engrg. Mechanics. In 2015, ASCE established ZP Bazant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention.

Published 8 books: Creep Structural Analysis; Scaling of Structural Strength, Inelastic Analysis, Fracture and Size Effect, Stability of Structures, Concrete at High Temperatures, Prob. Mechanics of Quasibrittle Structures; Concrete Creep and Hygrothermal Effects. In 2019: H-index 129, citations: 74,000 (on Google, incl. self-cit.), i10 index: 635. One of the  original top 100 ISI Highly Cited Scientists in Engineering (www.ISIhighlycited.com). In 2019 Stanford University weighted citation survey published in PLOS, he was ranked among 100,000 scientists no. 1 in civil engineering and no. 2 in engineering of all fields worldwide.

He is Illinois Registered Structural Engineer. His 1959 patent of safety release ski binding is exhibited in New England Skiing Museum.