Faculty Profile

Professor Zhai graduated from Southwest Jiaotong University with BS degree in 1985 and received his PhD degree in Railway Vehicle Engineering in 1992. He became a full professor in 1994. In 1999, he was appointed Chang Jiang Chair Professor by Chinese Ministry of Education. Professor Zhai was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2011. Currently, he is the Chairman of Academic Committee of Southwest Jiaotong University, the Director of Train and Track Research Institute, and the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Rail Transportation. He also serves as the President of Chengdu Association for Science and Technology, the vice President of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and the vice President of the Chinese Society for Vibration Engineering.

Professor Zhai is one of the leading scientists in railway engineering dynamics in the world. He developed a framework of vehicle-track coupled dynamics and a method for analyzing and assessing the running safety of high-speed trains passing through bridges based on train-track-bridge dynamic interactions, both of which have been widely cited and successfully applied to more than 20 large-scale field engineering projects for the railway network in China, mostly for high-speed railways. 

He won the National Science and Technology Awards by State Council of China in 2005 and in 2009, respectively. In 2006, Professor Zhai was awarded the Prize for Scientific and Technological Innovation by Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (Hong Kong) and Chang Jiang Scholars Achievement Award by Chinese Ministry of Education. He is also the owner of the Chinese Young Scientist Prize.