Bio

Pin ZHANG is the Assistant Professor under the Presidential Young Professorship in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Before joining NUS, Dr ZHANG worked at the University of Cambridge as the Royal Society Newton International Fellow (2022-2024). He completed the Ph.D. from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 2022, including one year at the University of Oxford as a visiting scholar.

New knowledge is demonstrated by publications in high-impact journals such as Géotechnique, JGGE and CMAME. Two journal papers were recognized as Editor’s Choice by JEM-ASCE and FSCE, and five papers were recognized as the journal’s top cited/downloaded.

Dr ZHANG was also the recipient of Early Career Award from Institution of Civil Engineers, Turing Network Development Award, Ringo Yu Prize from The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, PolyU PhD thesis-Merit Award, Hunan Provincial Outstanding Master’s Dissertation and Hunan University Outstanding Graduate.

Service

Member of the British Geotechnical Association
Corresponding member of TC105 Geo-Mechanics from Micro to Macro, ISSMGE
Nominated member of TC222 Geotechnical BIM and DT, ISSMGE
Nominated member of TC309 Machine Learning and Big Data, ISSMGE

2023: Guest Editor of a special issue of “Data-Centric Engineering (Cambridge)”

Grant Reviewer
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

Organization of Conferences

06/2025: Chair, Mini-symposium ‘Machine Learning, Data, and Physics in Geotechnics’ of 9th International Symposium for Geotechnical Safety and Risk, Oslo, Norway
12/2023: Chair, Mini-symposium ‘Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in Geotechnics’ of International Symposium on Innovations in Geotechnical Engineering towards Sustainability, HK
05/2023: Member of Organising Committee, Workshop of Alan Turing Network for AI in Geotechnics, Glasgow, UK
05/2023, Member of Organising Committee, Workshop on Information Modelling and Knowledge Management for Autonomous Mining and Construction, Birmingham, UK
11/2022: Chair, ISSMGE TC309 Technical Forum of Young Scholars on Data-driven Modelling of Soil Behaviours with Geotechnical Applications, HK

Awards & Honours

03/2024: Top Downloaded Article, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. (Wiley)
10/2023: World’s Top 2% Scientists, Stanford University
10/2023: PolyU PhD Thesis Award 2023 – Merit Award (3 recipients from all PhDs at PolyU in 2022), PolyU
04/2023: 75th Géotechnique Anniversary Early Career Award, Géotechnique
03/2023: Ringo Yu Prize, Best PhD Thesis (only 1 recipient at PolyU in 2022), The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers
03/2023: Turing Network Development Award, The Alan Turing Institute, UK
03/2023: Top Cited/Downloaded Article, Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech. (Wiley)
09/2022: Newton International Fellowship (15 global researchers awarded in 2022), Royal Society, UK 08/2022: JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan
04/2022: Editor’s Choice, Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE)
2021/2022: Top Cited Article, Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol./ Eng. Geol./ Soils Found. (Elsevier)
2020/2021: Outstanding Master’s Dissertation Award (~ top 1%), Hunan University/ Hunan Province
05/2020: Editor’s Choice, Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering (Springer)
2019: Outstanding Graduates (~ top 1%), Hunan Province
11/2017: National Scholarship, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China