Congratulations to PhD student Yating Yang for her first journal paper published at Acta Astronautica titled “Comparative study on morphological and mechanical properties of lunar regolith simulants (LHS-1, LMS-1, and LSP-2) using micro-CT reconstruction and direct shear tests.”
Sustainable & Resilient Geotechnical Infrastructure
Engineering safer, smarter and more resilient infrastructure.
Led by Prof. Lei Wang, Ph.D., P.E., the laboratory advances geotechnical reliability, infrastructure resilience, underground construction, soil/rock–structure interaction, and planetary geotechnics.
70+peer-reviewed journal papers
NSFNASA, USDOT, USGS & NRC supported work
UCGeotechnical Engineering research group
PhDGraduate research opportunities
Prof. Lei Wang, Ph.D., P.E.
Dr. Wang is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Sustainable and Resilient Geotechnical Infrastructure Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. His work spans geotechnical risk and reliability, civil infrastructure resilience, underground excavation and tunneling, foundation engineering, earth dams and levees, soil/rock-structure interaction, and geotechnical earthquake engineering.
He has served as Managing Editor of Engineering Geology, Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, and editorial board member for major geotechnical and geological engineering journals.
Research areas
The group develops innovative solutions for sustainable and resilient geotechnical infrastructure through reliability, numerical modeling, sensing, and data-informed decision analysis.
- Geological Hazards and Landslides
- Reliability-based Geotechnical Design and LRFD Calibration
- Geotechnical Risk and Reliability
- Transportation Geotechnics
- Discrete Element Modeling
- Risk-informed Decision Analysis and Machine Learning in Geotechnical Engineering
- Numerical and Centrifuge Modeling
- Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
- Drill-Regolith Interaction
Open position
Graduate assistantship for PhD students in geotechnical engineering. Highly motivated applicants with backgrounds in numerical modeling, machine learning, probabilistic methods, and remote sensing are encouraged to review the current opening.
Latest news
Selected updates from the Sustainable and Resilient Geotechnical Infrastructure Laboratory.
Congratulations to Jiajie Cheng and Yuxin Yuan for passing their PhD dissertation proposal defense!
Dr. Wang attended the ASCE Earth and Space Conference hosted at Texas A&M University and delivered an oral presentation on the microstructural characterization of lunar regolith simulants.
Dr. Wang was selected to serve as an editorial board member for the ISSMGE Journal on Geotechnical Engineering Research.
Dr. Wang and PhD student Yuxin Yuan attended Geo-Congress 2026 and presented recent research progress related to InSAR and geohazards.
Dr. Wang received both “Top Sponsored Awards Receipt” and “Top Collaborative Awardee” recognition by the UC Office of Research.
Congratulations to PhD student Jiajie Cheng’s paper titled “Robust design optimization of supported excavations considering spatial variability in sandy soils.”
Dr. Wang received the 2025 Springer Nature Editor of Distinction Award for contributions to Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment.
Contact & profiles
Prof. Lei Wang • University of Cincinnati
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