Dr. Yang Kuo-Hsin is currently a Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at the National Taiwan University (NTU). He completed his Ph.D. degree at the University of Texas in Austin in 2009 under the supervision of Dr. Zornberg for research entitled “Stress Distribution within Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil Structures.” He worked with Dr. Baser as a visiting scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (UIUC) in 2023. Dr. Yang has many years of experience in research and practice in geotechnical and geosynthetics engineering and contributed considerably to this field in education and service. 

Dr. Yang is the author and co-author of more than 100 publications in journals, conference proceedings, and reports. Among these publications, many papers were published in the most reputable journals in this field, e.g., Geotextiles and Geomembranes, Geosynthetics International, Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, and International Journal of Geomechanics. In recognition of his research work, Dr. Yang received the Second Best Paper Award from Geosynthetics International in 2020, Best Paper Award from the Journal of GeoEngineering in 2020, 2014, 2012, Best Engineering Paper Award from the Chinese Institute of Engineers in 2021, and Best Conference Paper Award from the 7th Asia Young Geotechnical Engineers Conference under the auspices of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) in 2012. He was also awarded the Young Member Achievement Award from the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) in 2014, and the Young Researcher Achievement Award from National Taiwan University in 2020, and the Outstanding Young Researcher Project (3-year research grant) from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, for research projects related to GRS structures.

Dr. Yang and his research team focus on the research related to Geotechnics for Disaster Prevention and Sustainability. Three main research directions are summarized in the following table. Dr. Yang's team has conducted many research and projects on the analysis, design, and case study of slopes and earth retaining structures. The aim is to provide a better understanding of the performance and failure mechanism of slopes and earth structures subject to natural disasters (heavy rainfall, flood, earthquake, and fault displacement). The research results are applied to prevent and mitigate the natural disaster-induced damage or collapse of geotechnical earth structures and to achieve the ultimate goal of establishing sustainable infrastructures and a safe homeland. Dr. Yang also works on the geo-energy and energy foundation related research issue, which applies the use of shallow ground geothermal energy as a renewable and sustainable energy resource.