Dr. Xiong Zhang       

Keynote lecture title:  Recent Advances in Measuring Volume of Soil Specimen in Triaxial 

Testing; Calibration of BBM Parameters Using the Modified State Surface Approach

Dr. Xiong Zhang is a Professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T). He received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. Before he joined Missouri S&T, he worked at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and University of Cincinnati for 10 years. Dr. Zhang has been teaching and conducting research in the field of geotechnical engineering since 1992. His studies focus on development of advanced laboratory techniques to rapidly characterize geomaterials, constitutive modeling coupled hydro-mechanical behavior of unsaturated soils, numerical modeling of climate-soil-structure interaction, slope stability analysis, soil stabilization and ground improvement, and frozen ground engineering. Dr. Zhang is currently Chair of ASCE Geo Institute (GI) Shallow Foundation Committee, Voting Member of TC106 Unsaturated Soils, International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) (one of two Voting Members in North America), Associate Editor for ASCE Journal of Cold Region Engineering, and editorial board member of Canadian Geotechnical Journal. He also serves as the committee member of several nationwide technical committees. He received the 2016 International Innovation Award in Unsaturated Soil Mechanics from TC106 Committee on Unsaturated Soils within the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering. He has been invited as a keynote speaker at many international conferences such as 3^rd and 4^th Pan-American Conference on Unsaturated Soils (Forthcoming); 7^th and 8^th Aisa-Pacific Conference on Unsaturated soils; 8^th International Conference on Unsaturated Soils; and 4^th International Conference on Transportation Soil Engineering in Cold Regions.