While employed as Bridge Designer he earned in 1963 (as an external student) a PhD in engineering mechanics from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences; in 1966, he earned a postgraduate diploma in theoretical physics from Charles University, Prague.

Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he decided not to return home and in 1969 he joined Northwestern University as an Associate Professor.

His size effect law (1984) is incorporated into shear design provisions of ACI Standard 318 (2019).

His B3 and B4 prediction models for concrete creep and shrinkage became RILEM Standard Recommendation in 1995 and 2015.

His AAAM procedure is part of Standard recommendation of ACI and Model Code.

[4] His microplane model for material damage and his crack band model for fracture have been widely adopted in civil engineering industry, for impact analysis, and for fracture assessment of large composite airframes.

His exponential algorithm became standard in creep analysis of concrete nuclear containments.

[18] His honors include 9 honorary doctorates: CTU Prague (1991), TU Karlsruhe (Fredericiana, 1997), CU Boulder (2000), Politecnico di Milano (2001), INSA Lyon (2004), TU Vienna (2006), Ohio State University Columbus (2011), University of Minnesota (2013) and UPPA Bayonne-Anglet (2013).

His honors include: In 2023, ASME created Zdenek P Bažant Medal for Contributions to Mechanics.