Filippo CATANI

Full Professor
the University of Padova, Italy

Prof. Filippo Catani is Full Professor of Engineering Geology at the University of Padova, where is Director of the Machine Intelligence & Slope Stability Laboratory, and President of the BSc Programme in Earth and Climate Dynamics. He holds appointment as Chair Associate of the UNESCO Chair on the Sustainable Management of Geo-hydrological Risks, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Italian Branch of IAEG. Ranked among the world's top 1% most influential scientists, his research focuses on geohazards, landslide forecasting, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence for Earth system monitoring, modelling, and analysis.

Derek ELSWORTH

Distinguished Professor
Pennsylvania State University, USA

Derek Elsworth is G. Albert Shoemaker Chair, Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering and Geosciences and co-director of the Center for Geomechanics, Geofluids, and Geohazards at Penn State. His interests are in the areas of computational mechanics, rock mechanics, and in the mechanical and transport characteristics of fractured rocks, with application to geothermal energy, the deep geological sequestration of radioactive wastes and of CO2, unconventional hydrocarbons including coal-gas, tight-gas-shales and hydrates, and instability and eruption dynamics of volcanoes.

Xuanmei FAN

Full Professor
Chengdu University of Technology, China

Prof. Xuanmei Fan is Director of the State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection at Chengdu University of Technology and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China. Her research focuses on earthquake-induced geohazards and disaster risk reduction. She has published more than 150 papers in leading journals, including Nature Geoscience and Science Advances, with over 11,800 citations, and has been recognized among the World's Top 2% Scientists. She Also serves as Vice President of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL), Chair of the Smart International Multi-hazard Reduction Alliance (SIMR), and Secretary of the International Research Association on Large Landslides (iRALL).

Manchao HE

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), China

Prof. Manchao He has been a Professor at CUMTB, Beijing since 1993 and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Tunnel Engineering since 2008. He is an Academician of CAS and ANI. His research covers rock mechanics, including landslide prediction, mining technologies, and rockburst control.

He developed a Newton force monitoring system that measures slip‑surface force variation, successfully applied in many projects for landslide prediction and control in China. He proposed the 110/N00 mining method, which has led the third revolution of mining science in China, and invented the energy‑absorbing NPR bolt (known as the 'HE‑bolt'), featuring large elongation, high working resistance, and ideal elastic‑plastic behavior.

He has consulted on over 200 projects, authored over 300 papers, and received four National Awards, two Chinese Outstanding Patented Inventions, and the ISRM Technological Innovation Award. He served as ISRM Vice President and Chairman of its Education Fund Committee (2015–2019), and is now an ISRM Fellow. He has been President of CSRME since 2016 and Vice President of ICGdR since 2022.

Yonggang JIA

Professor
Ocean University of China, China

Yonggang Jia, Professor at Ocean University of China. He is an Honorary Fellow of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (ICGdR), Chair of the Commission on Marine Engineering Geology of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG), President of the Marine Engineering Geohazard Prevention and Control Branch of the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics & Engineering, and Chief Technical Scientist at the State Key Laboratory of Deep-Sea Mineral Resources Development and Utilization Technology. Professor Jia has long been engaged in the development of in situ monitoring technologies for marine engineering geological environments and in marine environmental protection. He has led major national research projects funded by the National Key R&D Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including the Major Scientific Instrument Development Program and Key Programs. His team has developed a series of innovative technologies and instruments for in situ observation of seafloor engineering environments, which have been applied to deep-sea mineral development and to geological and environmental safety assurance for offshore engineering. He has published more than 300 academic papers and five monographs, and holds 16 international invention patents granted in the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as over 90 Chinese invention patents. As the principal contributor, he has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Second Prize of the National Technological Invention Award, a Gold Medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, the Technological Innovation Award of ICGdR, the Grand Prize of the Marine Engineering Science and Technology Award, the First Prize of the Ministry of Education's Technological Invention Award, the First Prize of the Shandong Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, the First Prize of the Shandong Provincial Patent Award, and the First Prize of the Hainan Provincial Technological Invention Award. His research achievements were also recognized among China's Top Ten Advances in Geological Science and Technology in both 2021 and 2022.

Michel JABOYEDOFF

Full Professor
University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Michel Jaboyedoff is a geologist with a degree in physics and a PhD in clay mineralogy. He started doing research on natural hazards in 1994. Since 2005, he has been a full professor at the University of Lausanne, focusing his research on natural hazards and related risks and integrated risk analysis. He worked in several risk management projects around the world (Argentina, Bolivia, Canada, Italy, Nepal, Norway, Switzerland, USA). His main research topics are related to the development of tools based on remote sensing and simple modelling techniques applied to landslides and rockfall hazard and risk analysis.

Chack Fan LEE

Professor
Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
China Three Gorges University, China

Professor Lee Chack Fan is a distinguished professor of geotechnical engineering and a renowned leader in Hong Kong's higher education sector. Professor Lee holds a BEng (CivE) (first class honours) and a MSc (Eng) from HKU, and a PhD from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. He has worked on hydropower, energy and transportation projects in Canada and China for over 40 years, including projects like the Three Gorges, Ertan, Lijiaxia and others across China. He is the author of over 300 engineering publications and some 20 literary books. From 1994 to his retirement in 2015, he has served the University as a Chair Professor, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research), Pro-Vice-Chancellor (University Relations) and Director of HKU SPACE. He is currently Emeritus Professor and Deputy Chairman of the HKU Foundation. Since its establishment in 2003, Professor Lee has served as the Director of the Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, a world class research institute for Chinese cultural studies, founded by the legendary scholar Professor Jao Tsung-I, University Laureate. Professor Lee is also an expert in the history and development of Buddhism, and helped establish the University's Centre of Buddhist Studies in 2000. 
Professor Lee is an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow and former President of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Science. He is a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar and has received the Gold Medal of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Western Ontario, Plymouth University, Edinburgh Napier University, University of Macau and the Open University of Hong Kong. He is very active in public service and has served on numerous government committees.

Eckart H. MEIBURG

Distinguished Professor
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Professor Meiburg's research interests lie in the general area of fluid dynamics and transport phenomena. His group primarily employs the tools of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), in particular highly resolved direct numerical simulations, in order to obtain insight into the physical mechanisms that govern the spatio-temporal evolution of a wide variety of geophysical, porous media and multiphase flow fields. Occasionally, his group extends their analyses to address issues of linear stability as well. Frequently, they collaborate closely with corresponding experimental investigations. Some current interests focus on gravity and turbidity currents, Hele-Shaw displacements, double-diffusive phenomena in particle laden flows, and internal bores. Prof. Meiburg is also investigating the flow and transport processes that govern the formation of 'salt giants' by focusing on the example of the Dead Sea (Meiburg and Lensky 2024, submitted).

Charles Wang Wai NG

Chair Professor
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

Professor Charles Wang-Wai Ng is the Vice-President for Institutional Advancement. He also serves as the CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability, a jointed Director of the State Key Laboratory of Climate Resilience for Coastal Cities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering. He was the Past President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (2017-2022). He is selected as the 65th prestigious Rankine Lecturer for 2027 (the only one from Greater China).

An internationally acclaimed expert in soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering, Professor Ng specializes in unsaturated soil mechanics, eco-geotechnics, debris flow mitigation, slope stability etc. According to Stanford University’s 2025 list of the world’s top 2% scientists, he is among the top two professors for career-long impact in the sub-fields of Geological & Geomatics Engineering and Civil Engineering.

Professor Ng has published approximately 450 SCI journal articles, achieving an H-index of 106 (over 38,500 citations). He has received numerous awards including the 2025 Telford Gold Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) — the highest honour bestowed by the ICE since its establishment in 1838. He also earned the 2025 Donald Stanley Award (the best paper in Environmental Engineering) from the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, the 2025 Scott Sloan Paper Award (highest cited paper in previous 5 years) from Computers and Geotechnics, the R. M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, four times for best papers published in Canadian Geotechnical Journal, the 2022 Varnes Medal from the International Consortium on Landslides, the 2022 Fredlund Award (highest cited paper published in Canadian Geotechnical Journal in previous 5 years) from the Canadian Geotechnical Society.

In Chinese Mainland, Professor Ng received the 2025 Natural Science Award (1st class) by the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering, 2024 Natural Science Awa In Chinese Mainland, Professor Ng received the 2025 Natural Science Award (1st class) by the Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics and Engineering, 2024 Natural Science Award of Hainan Province (1st class), the 2022 Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, the 2020 National Natural Science Award (2nd class) and the 2015 Scientific Technological Advancement Award (2nd class) from the State Council of China. He was elected as a Changjiang Scholar (Chair Professorship in Geotechnical Engineering) by the Ministry of Education in 2010 and a recipient of Overseas, Hong Kong and Macau Young Scholars' award in 2007 by the National Science Foundation of China.

Shengwen QI

Professor
Director of Center for Geological Engineering
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric and Environmental Coevolution
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS)
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS)

Deputy Director-General and Life Council Member of ICGDR, Vice President of IAEG, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Engineering Geology (Chinese) and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Engineering Geology. Specialized in engineering geomechanical problems of rock mass related to slope (sliding), tunnel, underground excavations, CO₂ sequestration, etc. The research interests include dynamic effect of rock mass, seismic response of rock slope, deformation and failure of underground engineering rock mass in high in-situ stress area, gravity deformation in deep slope and corresponding shallow crust dynamic characteristics.

Kenjiro TERADA

Professor
Tohoku University, Japan

Dr. Terada is a Full Professor at Tohoku University, specializing in computational mechanics and CAE. He has published over 300 refereed papers in domestic and international journals alongside four Japanese textbooks. His high-quality contributions are widely recognized, earning him the prestigious IACM Fellows Award in 2014 and numerous invitations as a plenary and semi-plenary speaker. While his primary research focuses on computational homogenization and mathematical modeling for heterogeneous materials, his recent interests extend to hypercomplex disaster simulations for risk estimation and expanding multiscale finite element analysis methods into practical applications for daily industrial CAE operations.

Masaho YOSHIDA

Professor
National Institute of Technology, Fukui College, Japan

Masaho Yoshida is a Professor at the National Institute of Technology, Fukui College, Japan, and President of the International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction. He received his Doctor of Engineering from Kanazawa University and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego. His research has advanced the fields of geotechnical and earthquake engineering, particularly in soil liquefaction, ground improvement, and timber-based technologies, contributing to global disaster risk reduction and climate change mitigation.

Honghu ZHU

Professor
Nanjing University, China

Honghu Zhu is a professor at the School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University. He also serves as Director of the Institute of Geo-Exploration and Sensing. He is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. His research focuses on geological engineering, geotechnical mechanics, intelligent monitoring, and disaster prevention. He has published more than 120 academic papers, authored two monographs, and holds 23 invention patents. He has led over 30 national and provincial research projects. Professor Zhu has received the First Prize of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award, the Gu Dezhen Award, and the Qian Qihu Award. His research has been applied to landslide monitoring, debris-flow mitigation, slope engineering, tunnel construction, and scientific deep-drilling projects.