Dr Charles Wang-wai Ng is currently the CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability, Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Associate Vice-President for Research and Development at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is the President of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (2017-2021).

Professor Ng earned his PhD degree from the University of Bristol, UK in 1993. After carrying out a period of post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge between 1993 and 1995, he returned to Hong Kong and joined HKUST as Assistant Professor in 1995 and rose through the ranks to become Chair Professor in 2011. Professor Ng was elected an Overseas Fellow by Churchill College, the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a Changjiang Scholar (Chair Professorship in Geotechnical Engineering). He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers.

He has received many awards including the 2018 Hong Kong Institution of Engineers best Geotechnical Paper Award, the 2017 Telford Premium Prize for best paper from the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Henry Adams Award from the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK), the first Tan Swan Beng Award from the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society, and the R. M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society three times for his three best papers published in 2007, 2012 & 2016. He was conferred the Mao Yisheng Youth Award by the Chinese Institute of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for his significant contributions in Geotechnical Engineering over the years. He was one of the recipients of the 2nd Prize of 2015 Scientific Technological Advancement Award by the State of China.

Professor Ng has supervised 56 PhD and 50 MPhil local and international students to graduation and mentored dozens of postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars. He has published some 350 SCI journal articles and 300 conference papers. He is the main author of three reference books: (i) Soil-structure Engineering of Deep Foundations, Excavations and Tunnels by Thomas Telford, (ii) Advanced Unsaturated Soil Mechanics and Engineering, and (iii) Plant-Soil slope Interaction by Taylor & Francis. Professor Ng has been invited to deliver more than some 80 state-of-the-art reports and keynote lectures in six continents worldwide.

Professor Chungsik Yoo is currently Professor of Civil, Architectural Engineering and Landscape Architecture at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in Korea. He is the President of International Geosynthetics Society (IGS). Professor Yoo obtained his MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1989 and 1993, respectively. After briefly working at Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers in USA as a Geotechnical Engineer, he returned to Korea and joined SKKU as Assistant Professor in 1994. Since then, Professor Yoo is continuing to serve as a professor at SKKU, and has served as Chair Professor of School of Civil and Architectural Engineering from 2014 to 2016 and as Vice Dean of College of Engineering from 2017 to 2018. Professor Yoo has co-authored over 400 technical papers, including SCI journal papers and conference papers, in geotechnical engineering and tunneling based on laboratory testing, numerical modeling, and field testing. He was a recipient of 2010 IGS Award from the International Geosynthetic Society (IGS). Professor Yoo also received many awards from the Korean Civil Engineering Society, Korean Geotechnical Society, Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, and Korean Geosynthetics Society including the Best Scientific and Engineering Paper Award from the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies in 2014. Currently, he is a Co-Editor in Chief of Geotextiles and Geomembranes and an Associate Editor of Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, Soils and Foundations. He is also an Editorial Board Member of Geosynthetics International and Computers and Geotechnics.

Prof. Xia-Ting Feng received his PhD at Northeastern University of Technology (namely Northeastern University since 1992), China in 1992 and then took the position of lecturer, associate professor and professor at the same university. He joined the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1998 as a Professor of Hundred Talent Program of the CAS and as Deputy Director in Charge and Director in 2001-2005. He has worked as Director of State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 2007-2018. He works at Northeastern University, China as a Vice President since September 2017. In 2019, Prof. Feng was elected as a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

He is President of Federation of International Geo-engineering Societies – FedIGS, President of ISRM Commission on Design Methodology, member of ISRM Commission on Testing Methods, and President of Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering (CSRME). He is also Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Journal of Rock Mechanics and Engineering, Associate Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Associate Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (JRMGE), and a member of Editorial Board of Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (2010-present). He was the past President of International Society for Rock Mechanics (ISRM) 2011-2015.

His research interests cover rock mechanics for deep rock engineering, intelligent rock mechanics, rock engineering design, and rockbursts. He published more than 170 technical papers and the English book “Rock Engineering Design” and “Rock Engineering Risk” with Professor John Hudson. He has edited five volumes of the book “Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering“ (CRC Press) and the book “Rockburst: ” published by Elsevier.