Born in 1954 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, Huang served as a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Fudan Journalism School and director of the Information and Communication Research Center at Fudan University. Before he went to Fudan University to teach in 2001, Huang used to teach at Hangzhou University. When Hangzhou University merged with Zhejiang University, Huang served as dean of the Journalism Department and director of the Journalism, Media and Social Development Research Institute of Zhejiang University.

Huang Dan's representative academic achievements include: Journalism and Communication, Image of Disseminator: Construction and Disresolution of Journalism Professionalism and so on.

There are 13 famous scholars who have been appointed senior professor of liberal arts at Zhejiang University, Huang became the 14th senior professor of liberal arts at Zhejiang University after his transfer.