Biography
Dr Zhang’s research lies in the area of resilient and intelligent geotechnics, with a particular focus on understanding the behaviour of geomaterials under climate-induced environmental and loading conditions, and developing advanced computational and AI-enabled solutions for geo-infrastructure, particularly underground infrastructure.
For his research contributions, he has received several prestigious international awards and recognitions, including the ICE (UK) Géotechnique 75th Anniversary Early Career Award, the ISSMGE Bright Spark Lecture Award, FOMLIG Council Lecturer Award, the TUST Best Paper, ASCE-JEM Editor’s Choice and World’s Top 2% Scientists (Single-Year Impact, since 2022) by Stanford University. He was also awarded the prestigious Royal Society (UK) Newton International Fellowship and the NUS Presidential Young Professorship.
Qualifications
- PhD, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), 2022
- M.E., College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, 2019
- B.E., College of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, 2016
Position Held
- PYP Assistant Professor, National University of Singapore, Nov 2024 – Present
- Royal Society-Newton International Fellow, University of Cambridge, 2022-2024
- Department of Engineering Teacher, University of Cambridge, 2023-2024
- College Research Associate, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, 2023-2024
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, 2021-2022
Selected Honours & Awards
- Best Paper Award, Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. (Elsevier), 2026
- Bright Spark Lecture, International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Eng. (ISSMGE), 2025
- 10th FSCE Anniversary Best Paper Award (10 awarded papers over a decade), FSCE (CAE), 2024
- Presidential Young Professorship, National University of Singapore, 2024
- World’s Top 2% Scientists (Single year), Stanford University, 2022 – 2025
- PolyU PhD Thesis Award 2023 – Merit Award, 2023
- 75th Géotechnique Anniversary Early Career Award, Géotechnique (ICE), 2023
- Ringo Yu Prize, Best PhD Thesis, HKIE, 2023
- Newton International Fellowship, Royal Society, United Kingdom, 2022
- Editor’s Choice, Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE), 2022
Professional Activities
- Since 2025: Member of Editorial Board of “Computers and Geotechnics”, Elsevier
- Since 2025: Member of the Early Career Editorial Advisory Board of “International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics”, Wiley
- Since 2025: Member of the Early Career Board of “Geomechanics and Geoengineering”, Taylor & Francis
- 2024: Guest Editor of a special issue of “Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards”
Research Interests
- Geomechanics
- Granular mechanics
- Computational mechanics
- AI for geotechnics
- Underground geotechnics
Selected Publications