Dr. Jian-Min Zhang is Chair Professor of Civil, Hydraulic, and Ocean Engineering and Head of the Institute for Ocean Engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. He was elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017. He previously served as the Head of the Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Dean of the School of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University. Dr. Zhang has been actively pushing for the advancement of the geotechnical engineering profession and education during his career, and also the chairs the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Standardization Committee and the China Association of Marine Affairs Expert Committee, he serves as the Vice President for the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society and Chinese Society for Vibration Engineering, and is the Honorary President of the Chinese Institution of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. Before arriving at Tsinghua University in 1998, he worked as an engineer at Shimizu Corporation in Japan for 5 years, and was a faculty at Xi’an University of Technology for 7 years prior to that. Dr. Zhang received his B.S. degree in hydraulic engineering in 1982 from Xi’an University of Technology, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geotechnical engineering in 1984 and 1991, respectively, from Xi’an University of Technology. Later, he received his second Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Dr. Zhang’s research has been focused on earthquake engineering and hazard reduction, with applications in hydraulic engineering structures, offshore engineering structures, port and coastal engineering structures, and urban underground structures. During his career, Dr. Zhang has made innovative breakthroughs in soil-structure interface mechanics, constitutive modeling of large deformation associated with soil liquefaction, non-limit state seismic earth pressure, and dynamic failure criterion for soil. Dr. Zhang established holistic seismic design theory and method for soil and structure systems, and developed a dynamic testing platform and a dynamic simulation platform for earthquake geotechnical engineering. His research has been applied to the seismic design of more than 70 major engineering projects in China and abroad. Dr. Zhang was the chief editor of China’s first standard focusing on the seismic design of underground structures, the Standard for Seismic Design of Underground Structures. He initiated the Zhang Guangdou Science and Technology Education Foundation in 2006, and served as the founding Secretary General, which has supported 43 young researchers and 777 students in the field of hydraulic engineering.

Dr. Zhang has published more than 300 peer reviewed journal papers. He received the most prestigious State Science and Technology Award in China three times, including the State Technological Innovation Award (first prize), the State Science and Technology Advancement Award (Innovation Team), and the State Science and Technology Advancement Award (second prize). He was also the recipient of the Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award, the Beijing Labor Medal, the Pan Jiazheng Award, National Outstanding Professional in Science and Technology, and the Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology award.

Dr. Zhang’s paper, entitled “Large post-liquefaction deformation of sand: mechanisms and modeling considering water absorption in shearing and seismic wave conditions”, addresses the large deformation of sand due to soil liquefaction, which is a major cause for seismic damage. Soil liquefaction has been the “crown jewel” of earthquake geotechnical engineering, and associated research has made significant advances over the past six decades since the 1964 Niigata and Alaska earthquakes. However, devastating damages caused by soil liquefaction in some recent earthquakes, including the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the 2018 Palu earthquake, etc., have clearly shown that our understanding of the phenomenon requires further advancement.

The paper focuses on the triggering of large post-liquefaction deformation in sand due to water absorption during shearing and the effects of seismic waves. It begins with a comprehensive evaluation of case histories and prior studies to show that drainage conditions and surface waves contribute significantly to post-liquefaction deformation. Dr. Zhang explains the mechanisms of post-liquefaction shear deformation at both micro and macro scales, considering both water absorption in shear and surface wave, through the integration of laboratory testing and DEM simulations. Dr. Zhang develops a constitutive model and corresponding numerical simulation methods for soil liquefaction analysis incorporating these mechanisms, which are extensively validated. Employing the model and numerical methods, Dr. Zhang successfully simulates water absorption during shearing and liquefaction deformation prompted by Rayleigh wave–shear wave coupling. Furthermore, Dr. Zhang goes on to showcase the model's application in high-performance simulations for large-scale soil-structure interaction in liquefiable ground, including underground structures, dams, quay walls, and offshore wind turbines.