Prof. Dr. Zhen-Dong Cui is the Dean of the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology. He received his Ph.D. from the School of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China in 2008, and was then a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for a year. He joined Shanghai Institute of Geological Survey in 2009, and in July 2010, he joined CUMT as an Associate Professor and was promoted to Full Professor in 2013. Supported by the China Scholarship Council, from August 2015 to August 2016 he was a visiting scholar at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder. In 2012, he was selected for the Qinglan Project for Outstanding Young Teachers of Jiangsu Province, and in 2016, he was selected for the 333 Talent Project in Jiangsu Province. In 2014 and in 2017, he was twice selected as Young Academic Leader of China University of Mining and Technology. In 2015, he was named Excellent Innovation Team Leader at China University of Mining and Technology. He is the associate editor of the Arabian Journal of Geosciences (indexed by SCI), a specialist member of the Soft Soil Engineering Committee of the Geotechnical Engineering Branch of the Civil Engineering Society of China, and a member of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and the International Association for Engineering Geology and Environment (IAEG).