Charles Wang Wai

NG

吳宏偉

PhD, University of Bristol

Brief Biography

Professor Charles W. W. Ng is currently the Dean of HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School, CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability and Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He is also the Vice-President for Gradate Support in our Guangzhou campus. He is the immediate past President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (2017-2022), the first Chinese President since the establishment of the Society in 1936. He is a co-Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Geotechnical Journal, which is one of the top three main-stream leading journals in the field.

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 Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of 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. According to the Stanford University published the top 2% Scientists Worldwide in September 2024, he is the only Chinese ranked within top five professors, in the category of career-long impact in the sub-fields: Geological & Geomatics Engineering; Civil Engineering.

Professor Ng has supervised more than 80 Ph. D and 70 M. Phil students to graduation from 23 countries and has published over 450 SCI journal articles and 250 conference papers with a total number of citations over 30,500 and H-index of 93. He has delivered more than 90 keynotes and state-of-the-art reports across the six continents. He is the main author of four reference books: (i) A Short Course in Soil-structure Engineering of Deep Foundations, Excavations and Tunnels by Thomas Telford in 2004, and (ii) Advanced Unsaturated Soil Mechanics and Engineering and (iii) Plant-Soil slope Interaction and (iv) Advanced Unsaturated Soil Mechanics: theory and applications by CRC: Taylor & Francis in 2007, 2019 and 2024, respectively.

Professor Ng has received many awards including the 2022 Varnes Medal by the International Consortium on Landslides, 2022 Fredlund Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society for the most highly cited paper in 5 years, 2018 and 2022 Hong Kong Institution of Engineers Best Geotechnical Paper Awards, the 2017 Telford Premium Prize from the Institution of Civil Engineers. Moreover, he won the Teaching Excellent Appreciation Award for the academic year 2018-19 at HKUST. In the Mainland, he received the prestigious 2022 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress (何梁何利基金科學與技術進步獎).  He was also a recipient of the 2020 National Natural Science Award (2nd class) (中國國家2020年度自然科學二等奖（排名第1））and the 2015 Scientific Technological Advancement Award (2nd class) by the State Council (中國國家2015年度科技進步獎二等獎（排名第4）), a recipient of Overseas, Hong Kong and Macau Young Scholars awarded by the National Science Foundation of China. (國家傑青)(海外)) in 2007 and a recipient of 2002 Mao Yisheng Youth Award (茅以升土力學及基礎工程青年獎) by the Chinese Institute of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for significant contributions in Geotechnical Engineering.

He is the Chairperson of the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Hong Kong, a Member of the CEPU Expert Group of the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit and the Vice-Chair of the Hong Kong Alliance of Technology and Innovation.

Research Projects

Green, Energy and Geo-environmental Engineering Projects

• Theme-based Project: Understanding debris flow mechanisms and mitigating risks for a sustainable Hong Kong (Theme-based/RGC)

• Performance of unsaturated earthen embankments subject to climate change: centrifuge and numerical modelling (GRF)

• Dissociation-induced deformation and instability of methane hydrate-bearing soils with various micro-structures (GRF/RGC)

• PCC 能量樁熱、力學工程特性及樁 - 土荷載傳遞機理研究 (A Fundamental Investigation of PCC Energy Pile and Load Transfer Mechanism) (NSFC)

• Performance of floating energy piled foundations in clay subjected to thermal cycles: three-dimensional centrifuge and numerical modelling (GRF/RGC)

• Hydro-mechanical behaviour of fine-grained soil contaminated by liquid hydrocarbon

• 填埋場植物 - 建築垃圾相互作用機理及生態覆蓋系統研發 (Vegetation-construction waste interaction and development of sustainable landfill cover) (NSFC)

• Hydro-mechanical behaviour of fine-grained soil contaminated by liquid hydrocarbon (GRF/RGC)

• Cyclic soil-root mechanical interaction for urban greening (GRF/RGC)

Material Behaviour and Fundamental Mechanisms

Cyclic thermo-mechanical behaviour of clay and sand with reference to energy piles (GRF/RGC)

Fundamental investigation of wetting-induced failure mechanisms of loess slopes (GRF/RGC)

Fundamental investigation of wetting-induced failure mechanisms of loess slopes (GRF/RGC)

Anisotropic stiffness of unsaturated soil under cyclic thermo-hydro-mechanical loads with principal stress rotations (GRF/RGC)

Centrifuge modelling of the influence of four types of fault movements on ground deformations

Soil-Structure Interaction Problems

Interaction among multiple circular and non-circular tunnels: three-dimensional centrifuge and numerical modelling (GRF/RGC)

Three-dimensional centrifuge modelling of multi-propped excavation on adjacent pile group and piled-raft foundation (GRF/RGC)

Experimental investigation of dynamics of granular flows obstructed by baffles using flume (GEO)

Centrifuge modelling for debris impact on flexible barrier (GEO)

Three-dimensional centrifuge modelling of tunnelling effects on pile groups in soft ground (GRF/RGC)

Three-dimensional centrifuge modelling of the effects of basement excavation on existing tunnels (GRF/RGC)

For other details of Professor Ng's research activities and accomplishments, please click this link.