Xiaobo Chen has graduated with distinction from Tsinghua University (China) in 1983. He secured a Ph.D. in Hydrodynamics at the Ecole Centrale Nantes (France) in 1988. After achieving his post-doctoral fellowship from Institute Francais du Petrole, he joined Bureau Veritas in 1991. He has worked successively as a research engineer in BV’s Ocean Technology Department and in the Research Department of the Marine Division, Head of the Hydrodynamics & Mooring Section, Director of Deepwater Technology Research Centre in Singapore, and now Research Director. He has been a member of the IACS working group WD-SL and the ISSC Technical Committee on Loads and chaired the IACS-HPT01 working group on harmonisation of the Common Structure Rules.
Throughout this period, he has been very active in the theoretical research of free surface flows and wave loading as well as applications to the sea-keeping assessment of FPSOs, semi-submersibles, containerships, LNG carriers and high-speed vessels. He has written over a hundred technical papers for presentation to major international conferences and publication in a variety of industry publications, including the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Journal of Engineering Mathematics, Journal of Ship Research, Ship Technology Research, and Marine Structure. His original contributions include the middle-field formulation for the computation of second-order wave loads and the analytical features of unsteady ship waves. Furthermore, the HydroSTAR software was developed during his Ph.D. studies and has been continually enhanced during his time at Bureau Veritas so that it is now widely regarded in the offshore industry and routinely used by industry companies to evaluate first-order and second-order wave loading and vessel response.
Qiuhua Liang is Chair Professor of Water Engineering at Loughborough University, UNESCO Chair in Informatics and Multi-hazard Risk Reduction, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), one of the UK’s highest honours for engineering. His research has helped shape the evolution of modern computational hydraulics through pioneering advances in high-performance numerical modelling and digital technologies for flood and multi-hazard risk management, with applications to flooding and other natural hazards, including landslides, debris flows and tsunamis.
Professor Liang developed the open-source High-Performance Integrated Hydrodynamic Modelling System (HiPIMS), a multi-GPU modelling platform adopted by researchers, government agencies and practitioners in around 40 countries for flood risk assessment, forecasting and emergency management. HiPIMS has been deployed within the UK’s National Digital Twin Programme and showcased by the UK Environment Agency as a flagship impact case study demonstrating how research investment can transform flood and coastal risk management.
Professor Liang has founded or leads several major international initiatives, including the UNESCO Chair in Informatics and Multi-hazard Risk Reduction, the Global Partnership for Smart Informatics and Multi-hazard Reduction (SIMR), and the IRDR International Centre of Excellence on Informatics and Disaster Resilience (ICEIDR). In recognition of his pioneering contributions to computational hydraulics and disaster resilience, he received the 2024 Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water.
E-Mail: fengzhengyncepu@163.com