Dr. Qi Zhao (赵奇, 趙奇)

Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Email:

Biography

Dr. Qi Zhao obtained his Ph.D. degree at the University of Toronto with Prof. Grasselli, and he worked at the same group as a postdoc for a year. He then did postdoctoral research with Prof. Glaser at UC Berkeley. He joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in June 2020 as an assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Academic Awards and Honors

• 2024: Dean’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Funding
• 2023: Young Elite Committee, Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics & Engineering
• 2023: East Asia Blue-ribbon Group, American Rock Mechanics Association
• 2021: Future leader, American Rock Mechanics Association
• 2020: Dr. N.G.W. Cook Ph.D. Dissertation Award, American Rock Mechanics Association
• 2019: Leopold Müller Award, Austrian Society for Geomechanics
• 2019: The 10th anniversary excellent paper award, JRMGE
• 2017: Early Career Scientists (ECS) travel award, Progressive rock failure conference
• 2016-2017: Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Visa Award
• 2015-2016: Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Visa Award
• 2015: The Canadian Exploration Geophysical Society (KEGS) Foundation Scholarship
• 2015: School of Graduate Studies (SGS) Conference Grant, University of Toronto
• 2015: Student Assistance Program Award, GeoConvention 2015
• 2014: Lassonde Institute Graduate Fellowship in Entrepreneurship and Engineering

Funded Projects (PI)

• Quantifying shear induced joint surface damage using acoustic emission and machine learning
  2024/01/ to 2026/12, Source: RGC General Research Fund (GRF)
• Analysis of Chang’e 5 lunar regolith and generation of physical and digital twins
  2024/01 to 2026/12, Source: PolyU RCDSE
• Hydromechanical fatigue of rock joints under fluctuating pore pressure: microscopic observation under micro-CT and constitutive modelling
  2023/01 to 2025/12, Source: RGC General Research Fund (GRF)
• Numerical and Laboratory investigation on the Landing-Induced Blast Crater by Zhurong
  2022/04 to 2024/09, Source: PolyU RCDSE
• Quantitative Assessment of the Acoustic Emissions from Rail Track Cracking
  2022/08 to 2024/01, Source: PolyU CNERC-Rail
• Direct Observation of the Evolution of Joint Surface Roughness and Associated Seismic Signatures
  2021/10 to 2024/09, Source: RGC Early Career Scheme (ECS)
• Digital Rock Physics with Micro-CT Imaging and Numerical Simulation
  2020/08 to 2023/08, Source: PolyU Start-up Fund

Professional, Academic and Administrative Activities

• Lab-in-Charge Engineering Materials Micro-Mechanics Laboratory (EM3) at PolyU CEE (since Jan 2024)
• Lab-in-Charge Rock Mechanics Laboratory at PolyU CEE (since July 2021)
• Departmental Research Committee, PolyU CEE (1 July 2023 – 30 June 2025)
• Scholarship Assessment Board, PolyU CEE (1 July 2020 to 30 June 2023)
• PolyU RCDSE founding member and management committee (since 2021)
• 2021-23: ARMA Future Leaders selection committee
• 2022/12: Judge for Outstanding Student Presentation Awards (OSPA) AGU 2022
• 2022: PolyU Undergraduate Info Day 2022 - CEE Booth
• 2022-24: Organizing Committee for 2022 International Geomechanics Symposium (IGS)

Academic and Research Appointments

• 2020/06-present, Assistant Professor, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
• 2021/04-present, Assistant Professor (Status-Only), University of Toronto, Canada
• 2018/07-2020/03, Postdoctoral scholar, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• 2017/07-2018/06, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
• 2014/01-2017/06, Teaching and research assistant, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Dissertations

• 2014/01-2017/07, Ph.D., University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (Thesis)
• 2012/09-2013/10, M.A.Sc., University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (Thesis)