Recruitment of PhD students and research staff (RA or postdoc) is currently ongoing.  Potential applicants, particularly those with strong mathematical background or significant numerical simulation experience, are welcome to send CV directly to wang.yu@ust.hk.

Contact Information

Address: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

                 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

                 Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Phone:    (852) 3469 3278

Email:      wang.yu@ust.hk 

Research Interest

• Machine Learning in Geotechnical and Geological Engineering

• Digital Twins of Geotechnical Structures

• Sampling and Analytics of Geo-data

  • Development and application of compressive sampling or sensing (CS) to spatial data

  • Statistical interpretation of spatially (temporally) varying but sparsely measured geo-data

  • Random field simulation from sparse measurements

• Geotechnical Uncertainty, Reliability and Risk

  • Reliability-based design of geotechnical engineering

  • Development and application of Bayesian methods in geotechnical engineering

  • Probabilistic site characterization

• Earthquake Engineering 

  • Geotechnical earthquake engineering

  • Seismic risk assessment of critical civil infrastructure systems (e.g., water supply systems)

  • Seismic risk assessment of submarine telecommunication cables

• Soil Structure Interaction 

• Soil and Rock Property Characterization using Laboratory and Field Tests

Selected Awards and Recognition

• The GEOSNet Award, Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet) and the 9th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (ISGSR), 25-28 August, 2025, Oslo, Norway. 

• The Scott Sloan Best Paper Award 2023, Computers and Geotechnics: Liu, X., Wang, Y., and Li, D. (2019). “Investigation of slope failure mode evolution during large deformation in spatially variable soils by random limit equilibrium and material point methods.” Computers and Geotechnics, 111, 301-312.

• The 2023 Thomas A. Middlebrooks Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

• The 2022 R.M. Quigley Award (Honourable Mention), Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS).

• The Best Editorial Board Member (EBM) Award 2020, Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards.

• The 2020 Best Paper Award, the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering: Hu, Y., Wang, Y., Zhao, T., and Phoon, K. K. (2020). "Bayesian supervised learning of site-specific geotechnical spatial variability from sparse measurements." ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering, 6(2), 04020019.

• The First-class Natural Science Award, Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology), 2020, Ministry of Education (MOE), China (教育部自然科学奖一等奖)

• Elected Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE), 2018

• The First-class Natural Science Award, 2017, Hubei Provincial Government, China (湖北省自然科学奖一等奖)

• Highly Cited Research Award, 2017, Engineering Geology, for the paper: Wang, Y. and Cao, Z. J. (2013). “Probabilistic characterization of Young's modulus of soil using equivalent samples.” Engineering Geology, 159, 106-118. (This paper is one of the most highly cited papers during 2014, 2015 and up until June 2016 according to data from Scopus.) 

• The inaugural GEOSNet Young Researcher Award, Geotechnical Safety Network (GEOSNet) and the 5th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (ISGSR), 13-16 October, 2015, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 

• The inaugural Wilson Tang Best Paper Award, The 5th Asian-Pacific Symposium on Structural Reliability and its Applications (APSSRA2012), 23-25 May 2012, Singapore. 

• Olin Fellowship, 2001, Cornell University, USA. 

• National Outstanding College Graduate (全国高校优秀毕业生奖), 1998, China Civil Engineering Society, China.

Selected Professional Activities

Journal Editorial Services

• Guest Editor

  • Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards, 2022, Volume 16, Issue 1. (Taylor & Francis), Special Issue on "Data Analytics in Geotechnical and Geological Engineering"

  • Engineering Geology (Elsevier), 2021, Special Issue on "Geological Uncertainty and Its Impact on Geohazards and Water Resources Assessments and Infrastructure Design" (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/engineering-geology/special-issue/10F0P4GQ8W8)

  • Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards, 2016, Volume 10, Issue 4. (Taylor & Francis), Special Issue on "Distinctive and Critical Elements in Geotechnical Risk and Reliability"

• Journal Editorial Board Member

  • ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (Associate Editor)

  • ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems: Part A Civil Engineering, Part B Mechanical Engineering (Associate Editor)

  • Canadian Geotechnical Journal (Canadian Geotechnical Society and NRC Research Press)

  • Computers and Geotechnics (Elsevier)

  • Engineering Geology (Elsevier)

  • Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards (Taylor & Francis)

  • Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology (Elsevier)

Professional Societies and Government Committees

• President, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) - Hong Kong Section, 2012 - 2013

• Technical Committee TC102: Ground Property Characterization from In-Situ Tests, International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), 2010 – present

• Technical Committee TC304: Engineering Practice of Risk Assessment and Management, ISSMGE, 2010 – present 

• ASCE Geo-Institute Technical Committee: Risk Assessment and Management, 2010 – present  

• Executive Committee, the Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (AGS Hong Kong), 2011 - 2013 

• Technical Committee for The Code of Practice for Foundations, Buildings Department, Hong Kong Government, 2014 – 2020

• Geotechnical Engineers Registration Committee, Buildings Department, Hong Kong Government, 2016 – 2017

• Review Panel under the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance, Development Bureau, Hong Kong Government, 2016 - 2019 

• 中国土木工程学会工程风险与保险研究分会, 理事, 2010 - present 

• 中国地质学会工程地质专业委员会, 委员, 2017 -present 

International Conferences

• International Scientific Committee, the 7th Asian-Pacific Symposium on Structural Reliability and its Applications (APSSRA2020), The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 4-7 October 2020

• International Scientific Committee, the 7th International Symposium on Reliability Engineering and Risk Management (ISRERM 2020), Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China, 5-8 June 2020

• International Scientific Committee, the 13th International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering (ICASP13), Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, 26-30 May 2019

• International Scientific Committee, the 6th International Symposium on Reliability Engineering and Risk Management (ISRERM 2018), National University of Singapore, Singapore, 31 May – 1 June 2018

• International Advisory Committee, International Conference on Geo-Energy and Geo-Environment (GeGe2017), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 5-7 July, 2017

• International Scientific Committee, the ASCE Specialty Conference Geo-Risk 2017 and  the 6th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (ISGSR), Denver, Colorado, USA, 4-6 June, 2017. 

• International Scientific Committee, the 6th Asian-Pacific Symposium on Structural Reliability and its Applications (APSSRA2016), Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 28-30 May 2016 

• International Scientific Committee, the 13th International Probabilistic Workshop (IPW2015), Liverpool, UK, 4 – 6 November 2015 

• International Scientific Committee, the 5th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (5ISGSR), Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 13 - 16 October 2015 

• International Scientific Committee, the joint conference of the 2nd International Conference on Vulnerability and Risk Analysis and Management and the 6th International Symposium on Uncertainty Modeling and Analysis (ASCE-ICVRAM-ISUMA 2014), The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, 13 – 16 July 2014 

• Organizing Committee (Secretary), the 4th International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety and Risk (4ISGSR 2013), The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, 4 - 6 December 2013 

• International Advisory Committee, the 5th Asian-Pacific Symposium on Structural Reliability and its Applications (APSSRA2012), Singapore, 23-25 May 2012  

• Organizing Committee, the 14th Asian Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (14ARC), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 23-27 May 2011