Prof Jidong Zhao Receives Prestigious International Awards

We are delighted to share that Prof. Jidong Zhao, Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at HKUST, has recently received two distinguished international recognitions in acknowledgement of his outstanding research contributions and academic service. 

Prof. Zhao has been conferred the Springer Nature Editor of Distinction Award 2026 – Author Service Award for the journal Granular Matter. Published by Springer Nature, Granular Matter is a well-established international journal and a leading interdisciplinary forum for research on the mechanics and behavior of granular materials, spanning engineering, physics, and materials science. 

The Author Service Award honors editors who provide exemplary support to authors and uphold a high-quality, efficient, and fair peer-review process. Recipients are selected from among thousands of editors worldwide, making this a highly selective and prestigious distinction. This award recognizes Prof. Zhao’s dedicated editorial contributions and his commitment to excellence in scholarly publishing. 

In addition, Prof. Zhao, in collaboration with researchers from Shenzhen University, Hohai University, and Hangzhou City University, has been awarded the Best Paper Prize 2025 by the leading international journal Acta Geotechnica for the paper titled “Estimation of compression behavior of granular soils considering initial density effect based on equivalent concept”. 

This highly competitive award is granted annually by the journal’s editorial board to recognize papers of exceptional scientific merit and influence on the field. Since its establishment, typically only one or at most a small number of papers are selected each year from all published articles, making it a highly competitive and prestigious honor within the international geotechnical engineering community. 

These achievements highlight Prof. Zhao’s leading role in advancing geotechnical engineering research and his continued contributions to the global academic community. 

The Department extends its warmest congratulations to Prof. Zhao on these remarkable accomplishments.