CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability Prof Charles W W Ng, Chair Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and HKUST Associate Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies, was elected as the 17th President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) at the International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ICSMGE) held in Seoul during September 17-22. Appointed for the period from 2017 to 2021, Prof Ng is the first president from Greater China and the third one from Asia since the establishment of ISSMGE by its founding president Prof K Terzaghi from Harvard University, also known as “Father of Soil Mechanics”, in 1936.

The ISSMGE is the pre-eminent professional body representing the interests and activities of engineers, academics and contractors all over the world that actively participate in geotechnical engineering. It has about 90 member societies worldwide representing 20,000 individual members. It aims to promote international co-operation amongst engineers and scientists for the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in the field of geotechnics, and its engineering and environmental applications.

Prof Ng is a world authority on unsaturated soil mechanics, slope stability and sustainability. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Bristol in 1993 and joined HKUST as Assistant Professor in 1995. He was elected an Overseas Fellow from Churchill College, Cambridge University, in 2005 and was elected Changjiang Scholar (Chair Professor in Geotechnical Engineering) by the Ministry of Education in China in 2010. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (FASCE), the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (FHKIE) and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (FHKEng).

He has received multiple awards east and west including the Telford Premium Prize from the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the Henry Adams Award from the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK), top cited paper award 2015/2016 by the Journal of Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment, the first Tan Swan Beng Award from the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society, R. M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society for three times, and the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award (Second Class).

About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science.  HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking.  HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2019.  Its graduates were ranked 16th worldwide and top in Greater China in Global University Employability Survey 2018.

Related link:

• About Prof Charles W W Ng (17th President of ISSMGE)