Prof. Dr. Zhen-Dong Cui is the Dean of Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology. In July 2008, he obtained his PhD from the School of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. He was then a postdoctoral research fellow in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for one year from July 2008 to Aug 2009.

He joined the Shanghai Institute of Geological Survey in 2009. In July 2010, he joined CUMT as an associate professor and was promoted to full professor in 2013. Supported by China Scholarship Council, from Aug. 2015 to Aug. 2016, as a visiting scholar, he researched and studied in the department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder.

His research interests focus mainly on the urban subway tunnels, the deformation of soft foundations,  soil dynamics,  centrifuge model tests and  artificial frozen soil. In the past 5 years, he took charge of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation of China, Outstanding Innovation Team Project in China University of Mining and Technology and Special Fund for China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. He published more than 60 papers, in which 37 were English papers (indexed by SCI); they have been published in Engineering Geology, Natural Hazards, Computers and Geotechnics, Cold Regions Science and Technology, Environmental Earth Sciences, the International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, etc. He has applied for 6 national invented patents, of which three have been awarded so far. He is a specialized committee member of the soft soil engineering of the geotechnical engineering branch of the Civil Engineering Society of China, a member of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) and a member of international association for engineering geology and environment (IAEG).