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.

His research focuses on (1) intelligent computational geomechanics, aiming to develop knowledge-informed AI approaches to reshape the fundamental framework of computational geomechanics, covering constitutive modelling, integration algorithms, solvers, etc; and (2) the application of artificial intelligence in geotechnical engineering, with particular emphasis on sustainable geomaterials, tunnelling, and coastal geotechnics.

Service

Since 11/2025: Member of Editorial Board of “Computers and Geotechnics”, Elsevier
Since 11/2025: Member of Early Career Editorial Advisory Board of “International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics”, Wiley
Since 07/2025: Member of Early Career Board of “Geomechanics and Geoengineering”, Taylor & Francis
2025: Guest Editor of a special issue of “Geodata and AI”
2024: Guest Editor of a special issue of “Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards”

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

01/2026 Best Paper Award, Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. (Elsevier)
08/2025 Bright Spark Lecture, International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Eng. (ISSMGE)
12/2024 10th FSCE Anniversary Best Paper Award (10 awarded papers over a decade), FSCE (CAE)
11/2024 Presidential Young Professorship, National University of Singapore
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