ENTRY

Sept 2025 Entry

STUDY MODE
Full-time, Part-time
Application Deadline
PhD & MPhil
31-May-2025
About Programme
How to Apply
Introduction

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is dedicated to conducting fundamental and application-oriented research to develop scientific, engineering and management solutions that are appropriate to sustain the urban development in densely populated cities, such as Hong Kong, those in Mainland China and other major cities in Asia. We have a strong team of faculties and have achieved an excellent research and publication track record in civil engineering.

 

The Research Postgraduate Programmes offered by CEE are a combination of coursework and independent research leading to the degree of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). All of our academic staff are actively engaged in research activities through a range of funding from UGC, RGC, ITF and other sources. The principal research areas in CEE include: Environmental Engineering & Science; Geotechnical Engineering; Coastal & Hydraulic Engineering; Structural Engineering and Construction & Transportation.

Research Area

Coastal and Hydraulic Engineering

Climate Change & Coastal Engineering; Urban Water System & Hydraulics; Ocean Renewables & Low Impact Development; Environmental Fluid Mechanics; Computational Fluid Dynamics

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Huanfeng DUAN3400 8449hduan@polyu.edu.hk

Coastal Disasters, Ocean Wave & Offshore Wind Renewables, Nonlinear Water Wave Mechanics, Multi-Scale Ocean Wave Modelling, Computational Fluid Dynamics

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Jinghua WANG3400 8015jinghua.wang@polyu.edu.hk

Environmental Fluid Mechanics; Coastal Circulations and Sediment Transport; Biofluid Mechanics; Experimental Fluid Mechanics; River Morphodynamics

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Alessandro STOCCHINO3400 8328alessandro.stocchino@polyu.edu.hk

Construction and Transportation

Construction Project /Program Management, Sustainable Construction, Infrastructure Systems, Sustainable Infrastructure, Pavement Engineering 

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Yuhong WANG2766 4489ceyhwang@polyu.edu.hk

Innovation Management and Performance Evaluations; Data-driven Multi-criterion Decision-making; Smart Transportation Management Systems; System Dynamic Modeling Supporting Public Policy Making; Pedestrian and Crowd Simulations for Smart Infrastructure and Urban Planning

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Jacqueline T.Y. LO2766 6033jacqueline.lo@polyu.edu.hk

Machine Learning in Civil Engineering, Infrastructure and Construction Informatics, Life-cycle Assessment of Infrastructure Systems, Circular Economy in Cities

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Mark S.C. HSU2766 6057smarkhsu@polyu.edu.hk

Sustainable and Smart Paving Materials and Technologies; Nondestructive Evaluation of Transportation Instractruture; Pavement Life Cycle Management

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Zhen LENG2766 6007zhen.leng@polyu.edu.hk

Transportation Network Modelling, Data-driven Modelling, Machine Learning and Data Mining in Infrastructure Systems, Urban Computing, Smart Cities

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Wei MA2766 6069wei.w.ma@polyu.edu.hk

Transportation Systems Modelling and Analysis, Transportation Network Reliability Analysis, Non-motorised Transportation Modelling, Path Flow Estimator and Planning Applications, Applied Optimisation to Civil Infrastructure Problems

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Anthony CHEN3400 8327antchen@polyu.edu.hk

Travel Choice Modelling and Bounded Rationality; Travel Behavior Analysis; Smart Mobility Planning; Transportation Policy and Decision Support Systems; Transportation Sustainability and Equity

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Sunghoon JANG2766 6047sunghoon.jang@polyu.edu.hk

Environmental Engineering and Science

Accident Prediction, Injury Prevention, Applications of Statistical Model for Safety Analysis, Human Behaviour for Safety Studies and Safety Policy and Regulation

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Tony N.N. SZE 2766 6062nnsze@polyu.edu.hk

Air Pollution and Health; Environmental Transmission of Antibiotic Resistance Genes; Airborne Microbiology; Sustainable Urban Infrastructure

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Xiangdong LI2766 6041cexdli@polyu.edu.hk

Atmospheric Chemistry, Air Pollution Meteorology, Instrument Development, Field Measurements and Data Analysis 

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Tao WANG2766 6059cetwang@polyu.edu.hk

Atmospheric Chemistry, VOC Photochemistry, Transmission and Infection of Bioaerosols, Acidic Ultrafine Particles, Organic Aerosols, Indoor Air Chemistry

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Hai GUO3400 3962ceguohai@polyu.edu.hk

Atmospheric Environment, Aerosol Particle Sources and Chemistry, Atmospheric Oxidative Capacity, Atmosphere-Cryosphere Interactions, Global Chemical Transport Model

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Qian-jie CHEN2766 6078qianjie.chen@polyu.edu.hk 

Biofuel, Biorefinery, Bio-polymers, Lignocellulosic Biomass, Biological Processes

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Ben S.Y. LEU3400 8322syleu@polyu.edu.hk

Eco-friendly Construction Materials, Concrete Technology, Waste Recycling and Management 

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Chi Sun POON2766 6024cecspoon@polyu.edu.hk

Environmental Health; Air Pollution and Human Health; Marine Pollution and Wildlife Health; Environmental Microbiome; Antimicrobial Resistance

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Nathanael L. JIN2766 6009ling.jin@polyu.edu.hk

Emerging Pollutants, Soil and Groundwater Remediation, Water Treatment, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Health

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Jinxia LIU3400 8344jinxia.liu@polyu.edu.hk

Environmental Nanotechnology, Aerosol Technology, Advanced Water Treatment, Environmental Sensing, Environmental Chemistry

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Yi JIANG2766 6044yijiang@polyu.edu.hk

Sustainable Transportation, Urban Environmental Sensing, Life-Cycle Assessment, Data-Driven Modelling Techniques

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr An WANG2766 6067an.wang@polyu.edu.hk

Sustainable wastewater management, Environmental microbiology, Bioinformatics, Gas fermentation, Resource recovery

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Tao LIU2766 6026tao-cee.liu@polyu.edu.hk 

Sustainable construction materials; Solid waste upcycling; Carbon capture and storage; 3D concrete printing

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Shipeng ZHANG2766 4473shipeng.zhang@polyu.edu.hk 

Geotechnical Engineering

Advanced Constitutive Modelling of Soils, Microstructure and Micromechanics of Soils, Multiscale and Multiphysics Modelling in Geotechnical Engineering, Practice of Artificial Intelligence in Geotechnical Engineering

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Zhenyu YIN3400 8470zhenyu.yin@polyu.edu.hk

Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical Behaviour of Soil, Constitutive Modelling of Soil, Energy Foundation, Methane Hydrate Bearing Soil, High-speed Railway Embankment

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Chao ZHOU2766 6071cezhou@polyu.edu.hk

Pile Group/Piled Raft Optimisation, Interaction between Foundation and Superstructure, Optical Fibre Strain Sensing, Spatial Variability of Soil Properties, Ground Improvement

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Andy Y.F. LEUNG2766 6064yfleung@polyu.edu.hk

Rock mechanics, Experimental rock physics, Digital rock physics based on micro-CT technology, Non-destructive testing and characterization of geomaterials, Application of geophysical methods in engineering and environmental problems

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Qi ZHAO3400 8323qi.qz.zhao@polyu.edu.hk

Structural Engineering

Cold-formed Steel Structures; High Strength Steel Structures; Stainless Steel Structures; Aluminium Structures; Fire Resistance of Metal Structures

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Ben YOUNG2766 5214ben.young@polyu.edu.hk

Earthquake Engineering; Structural Dynamics; Structural Robustness; Hybrid Structures; Heritage Structures

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Ahmed Youssef ELGHAZOULI2766 4713ahmed.elghazouli@polyu.edu.hk

Emerging Structural Materials and Systems; FRP-reinforced/confined Concrete Structures; Hybrid FRP-Concrete-Steel Structures; Thin-walled Structures; Steel Structures 

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Jinguang TENG2766 6012cejgteng@polyu.edu.hk

Infrastructure Applications of Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites; Hybrid Tubular Structures; Strengthening of Concrete and Steel Structures; Non-linear Finite Element Analysis of Complex Structures; Life-Cycle Structural Engineering

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Tao YU2766 6042tao-cee.yu@polyu.edu.hk

Multi-hazard and Climate Change Adaptation, Life-cycle Management and Decision Making, Physics-guided Machine Learning for Predictive Modeling and Analysis, Risk and Resilience, Smart City

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr You DONG3400 8818ydong@polyu.edu.hk

Smart Materials and Structures; Structural Vibration Control; Earthquake Engineering; Structural Health Monitoring; Wind Energy; Construction Vibration Impact

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Songye ZHU3400 3964ceszhu@polyu.edu.hk

Steel Structures; Computational Structural Engineering; Direct Analysis Method; Composite Structures; Soil-Structure Interaction

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Siwei LIU2766 5542si-wei.liu@polyu.edu.hk

Steel Structures, Steel-concrete Composite Structures and Cold-formed Steel Construction, Code Development, Fire Engineering and Fire Protection, Fire Resistant Design, Development of Steel Building Products, Bamboo Structures 

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Kwok Fai CHUNG2766 6063cekchung@polyu.edu.hk

Structural Health Monitoring; Machine Learning Methods; Digital Twin Techniques; Marine Infrastructure

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Yong XIA2766 6066ceyxia@polyu.edu.hk

Structural Health Monitoring; Noise and Vibration Control; Smart Materials and Sensing; Reliability-based Analysis, Assessment and Design under Uncertainties; Cyber-Infrastructure System

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Kai ZHOU3400 8324cee-kai.zhou@polyu.edu.hk

Structural Health Monitoring, Structural Dynamics and Control, Monitoring and Control in Rail Engineering, Smart Materials and Structures, Sensors and Actuators

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Yiqing NI2766 6004ceyqni@polyu.edu.hk

Structural Vibration Control; Impact Engineering; Earthquake Engineering; Floating Structures; Novel Structural Materials and Systems 

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Kaiming BI2766 6075kaiming.bi@polyu.edu.hk

Sustainable and High-Performance Construction Materials; Floating Structure Technology; Steel Structures; Steel-Concrete-FRP Hybrid Construction; Modular Construction

SupervisorTelEmail
Prof. Xiao Lin ZHAO2766 4474xiao-lin.zhao@polyu.edu.hk

Vibration-based Energy Harvesting; Nonlinear Dynamics; Smart Materials and Structures; Topology Optimization; Structural Vibration Control

SupervisorTelEmail
Dr Siu Kai LAI2766 6060sklai@polyu.edu.hk
Research Facilities

The Department manages 30 laboratories,1 mechanical workshop and 1 computer room to provide a controlled environment to support teaching, research and services to the community. The Department has the following laboratories and workshop under different units.

 

Construction and Transportation Unit

  • Road Research Laboratory

  • Transport and Highway Engineering Laboratory

 

Environmental Engineering Unit

  • Advanced Environmental Microbiology Laboratory

  • Air Pollution Laboratory

  • Atmospheric Research Laboratory

  • Bioenergy Research Laboratory

  • Carbon Analysis and Filter Handling Clean Room

  • Environmental Chamber

  • Indoor Air Aerosol Science Laboratory

  • Laboratory for Advanced Environmental Studies

  • Noise and Safety Laboratory/ Semi-anechoic Chamber

  • Water and Waste Teaching Laboratory

  • Water and Waste Research Laboratory

  • Water Analysis Laboratory

 

Geotechnical Engineering Unit

  • Geology Laboratory

  • Rock Mechanics Laboratory

  • Smart Geotechnology Laboratory

  • Soil Mechanics Laboratory

 

Hydraulic Engineering Unit

  • Hydraulics Laboratory

 

Structural Engineering Unit

  • Concrete Materials Laboratory

  • Concrete Technology Laboratory

  • Engineering Materials Micro-Mechanics Laboratory

  • Functional Construction Materials Laboratory

  • Light Structures Laboratory

  • Materials and Structures Durability Laboratory

  • Structural Engineering Research Laboratory

  • Structural Dynamics Laboratory

  • Smart Structures Laboratory

  • Sample Preparation Room

 

Workshops

  • Mechanical Workshop

 

Others

  • Computer Room

Supporting Documents
Academic Referee's Report

Compulsory - Two Academic Referee's Reports are required.

Research Proposal

Compulsory - A standard form must be used for the submission of research proposal.  Please click here to download the form.

Transcript / Certificate

Compulsory – Please upload all academic qualifications including Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree (if any) according to the University’s admission requirements, also refer to the ‘Procedures – Guidelines for Submitting Supporting Documents’ to follow the submission requirements