Phoon Kok Kwang

Phoon Kok Kwang is a Distinguished Professor and Vice Provost (Academic Personnel) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He specializes in geotechnical engineering, focusing on statistical and data-driven methods for decision-making in civil infrastructure. His work has significantly influenced international standards like ISO2394 and earned over 10,000 citations (h-index 47). He is a Fellow of ASCE, IES, and the Singapore Academy of Engineering.

Education: PhD in Civil Engineering from Cornell University (USA). Professional qualifications include Professional Engineer (Singapore) and ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer.

Research Interests: Reliability-based design, probabilistic modeling of geotechnical parameters, uncertainty quantification in geotechnical systems, and computational methods in geomechanics. His recent work emphasizes Bayesian machine learning for site-specific modeling and statistical characterization of geotechnical data.

Awards & Honors

• Norman Medal (ASCE) – 2005
• John Booker Medal – 2014
• Humboldt Research Award – 2017
• Luojia Distinguished Visiting Professor (Wuhan University) – 2018–2022

Advising & Grants

Edited 3 books including Reliability of Geotechnical Structures in ISO2394. Led special issues in Georisk and Underground Space. Spearheaded initiatives like the 6th International Symposium on Reliability Engineering (2018). Served as editor for major journals including Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems.

Labs & Teams

Founded the Georisk journal and leads research groups focused on computational geomechanics and probabilistic site characterization at NUS.