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

• 2023: ARMA East Asia Blue-ribbon Group
• 2021: Future leader, American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA)
• 2020: Dr. N.G.W. Cook Ph.D. Dissertation Award, American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA)
• 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 (as PI)

• Quantifying shear induced joint surface damage using acoustic emission and machine learning
  2024/01/01 to 2026/12/31, Source: RGC General Research Fund (GRF)
• Hydromechanical fatigue of rock joints under fluctuating pore pressure: microscopic observation under micro-CT and constitutive modelling
  2023/01/01 to 2025/12/31, Source: RGC General Research Fund (GRF)
• Direct Observation of the Evolution of Joint Surface Roughness and Associated Seismic Signatures
  2021/10/1 to 2024/09/30, Source: RGC Early Career Scheme (ECS)
• Digital Rock Physics with Micro-CT Imaging and Numerical Simulation
  2020/08/11 to 2023/08/10, Source: PolyU Start-up Fund

Professional, Academic and Administrative Activities

• 2023: ARMA Future Leaders selection committee
• 2022/12: Judge for Outstanding Student Presentation Awards (OSPA) AGU 2022
• 2022/12: PhD supervisory committee: Kareem Aboayanah, U of T
• 2022/12: PhD supervisory committee: Yunkun Wang, U of T
• 2022: PolyU Undergraduate Info Day 2022 - CEE Booth
• 2022/10: PhD supervisory committee: Bezawit F. Haile, U of T
• 2022/08: PhD confirmation committee: Ruiming Li, PolyU
• 2022: Organizing Committee for 2022 International Geomechanics Symposium (IGS)
• 2022/04: PhD supervisory committee: Mei Li, U of T
• 2022/04: PhD supervisory committee: Earl Magsipoc, U of T
• 2021: ARMA Future Leaders selection committee
• From 2021/08: Review editor for Frontiers in Earth Science
• From 2021/07: Lab-in-Charge Rock Mechanics Laboratory at PolyU CEE
• 2021/08: PhD confirmation committee: Zong Yu LI, PolyU
• 2021/04: PhD qualifying exam committee: Christopher Roland, UC Berkeley
• 2021/07: Guest editor for Shock and Vibration Special Issue on: Effect of Shock and Vibration in Blasting
• From 2021: RCDSE management committee
• From 2020/07: Scholarship Assessment Board PolyU CEE
• From 2020: Member of the ARMA Hydraulic Fracturing Community (HFC).
• From 2020: Member and subject leader of the ARMA Underground Storage and Utilization Technical Community (USUTC).
• 2018/06: Associate editor for The Leading Edge on the special section: Advancements in image processing.
• 2018/06: Session chair for technical session Imaging Technologies for Geomechanics in 52nd US Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics (ARMA) Symposium 2018.

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)