Chenbo Wang (he/him)
PhD Candidate at University College London
I am a PhD candidate in the DE|RISC Lab at University College London (UCL), co-advised by Dr. Gemma Cremen and Prof. Carmine Galasso. I hold an M.S. in Structural Engineering from Stanford University (2021, GPA: 4.1/4.3) and a B.E. in Civil Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (2019, ranked 1st out of 171). Additionally, I completed part of my undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley (GPA: 4.0). Prior to my studies at UCL, I conducted research at Stanford Urban Resilience Initiative and Baker Research Group (advised by Prof. Jack Baker).
My PhD research is centered on developing data-driven tools to inform policy decisions related to natural hazard risks. My research interests include disaster risk reduction, urban resilience, post-disaster housing recovery, and risk-informed urban planning. I am passionate about conducting interdisciplinary research at the intersection of hazard science, structural engineering, and social science to address global engineering and societal challenges. |
Educational Background
Ph.D. Disaster Risk Reduction (2022-2026)
Civil Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London Recipient of UCL Overseas Research Scholarship Research topics: Data-driven tools for supporting decision-making on hazard-hazard risk reduction M.S. Structural Engineering (2019-2021)
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University GPA: 4.1/4.3 Research topics: post-earthquake housing recovery, population displacement, post-disaster emergency response Coursework: PBEE, nonlinear structural analysis, advanced structural analysis, structural monitoring, data mining and analysis, data analytics for physical systems, structural performance and failures, solid mechanics, structural dynamics, materials for sustainable built environments, etc. B.E. Civil Engineering (2015-2019)
Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology GPA: 93.1/100 (ranking: 1/171) Honors: Outstanding Graduate of CSCE (1/220), China National Scholarship (twice) Exchange Program (2017)
Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California Berkeley GPA: 4.0 Coursework: structural analysis, design of steel structures, design of reinforced concrete structures, intro to solid mechanics |
News
09 to 13 Dec 2024: Chenbo was an invited speaker at the 2024 annual meeting of American Geophysical Union (AGU24). He presented a poster "Capturing Dynamic Relationships Between Built and Non-built Environments for Enriched Natural-hazard Risk Assessments."
Jun 30 to Jul 05 2024: Chenbo delivered a stage presentation "Capturing Dependencies of Humans on the Built Environment for Enriched Seismic Risk Assessments" and a monitor presentation "A Bespoke Approach to Facilitating the Quantification of Disaster Impacts, Using Stakeholder-relevant Metrics" at the 2024 World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (WCEE2024) in Milan, Italy.
27 Jun 2024: Chenbo delivered an oral presentation "Towards Bespoke Stakeholder-relevant Disaster Impact Metrics" at the The UK Alliance for Disaster Reduction (UKADR) 2024 Conference.
03 Apr 2024: Chenbo gave a talk on post-earthquake household relocation decision-making at "Household displacement and return in disasters" Joint workshop with the UBC’s Engineering for Seismic Resilience Laboratory (ESR Lab) and the UCL’s Disaster Engineering for ResIlient SoCieties Laboratory (DE|RISC Lab).
19 Mar 2024: The Disaster Impact Metrics (DIMs) Toolbox for quantifying bespoke stakeholder-relevant hazard event consequences is now available. See the associated preprint and Github repository for details.
01 Feb 2024: Our work related to Disaster Impact Metrics Toolbox is featured in Tomorrow's Cities newsletter: Reshaping Disaster-Risk Policies: The Innovative Role of Tomorrow’s Cities in Computational Modelling.
18 Sep 2023: Chenbo presented the results of his EEFIT research grant from the Institution of Structural Engineers. Stay tuned for more updates on his research investigating post-earthquake household relocation decision making through data-driven approaches.
14 to 15 Sep 2023: Chenbo delivered two presentations at SECED 2023 conference:Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics.
11 July 2023: Chenbo is awarded the CERRA (International Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association) Student Recognition Award for academic excellence and the ICASP14 paper entitled "Leveraging Data-driven Approaches to Explore the Effects of Various Disaster Policies on Post-earthquake Household Relocation Decision-making".
09 to 13 July 2023: Chenbo (on behalf of Dr Gemma Cremen and Dr Carmine Galasso) presented "Leveraging Data-driven Approaches to Explore the Effects of Various Disaster Policies on Post-earthquake Household Relocation Decision-making" at 14th International Conference on Application of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering (ICASP14).
09 to 13 July 2023: Chenbo (on behalf of Dr Gemma Cremen, Dr Roberto Gentile and Dr Carmine Galasso) presented "Design and Assessment of Pro-poor Financial Soft Policies for Earthquake-prone Urban Communities" at 14th International Conference on Application of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering (ICASP14).
Older news
06 July 2023: Chenbo presented "Towards bespoke Stakeholder-oriented Disaster Impact Metrics" at Engineering PhD Research Festival at University College London.
01 May 2023: Chenbo is awarded (as the secondary applicant) the UCL Fellowship Incubator Awards for UCL Early Career Researchers. This funding will be used to support Chenbo's work (supervised by Dr. Fabrizio Nocera) on "Developing Bespoke Stakeholder-oriented Disaster Impact Metrics".
24 April 2023: Chenbo presented "Modeling, Quantifying, and Managing Tomorrow's Risks from Natural Hazards" at Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay).
15 Dec 2022: Our paper "Design and assessment of pro-poor financial soft policies for expanding cities" (C. Wang, G. Cremen, R. Gentile, and C. Galasso) is published on International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.
16 Nov 2022: Chenbo presented "Leveraging data-driven approaches to explore the effects of various disaster policies on post-earthquake household relocation decision-making: a forward-looking pro-poor perspective" (C. Wang & G. Cremen & C. Galasso) at the Research Festival of UCL Department of Civil, Environmental, Geomatic Engineering.
01 Nov 2022: Chenbo (as one of the DE|RISC delegates) attended the first Tomorrow's Cities global conference in Kathmandu, Nepal (Oct 30, 2022 to Nov 04, 2022). We discussed the latest progress and how the project’s innovative approach to multi-hazard risk-based pro-poor urban planning and design can be implemented in new cities. We also visited the traditional Newari village of Khokana and the Bhaktapur site.
16 Sep 2022: Chenbo will work on an EEFIT Research Grants project entitled "Assessing the effectiveness of rebuilding programs in mitigating post-earthquake population loss in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal" under the supervision of Dr Gemma Cremen.
16 Aug 2022: Our paper "Simulating post-disaster temporary housing needs for displaced households and out-of-town contractor" (C. Wang, R. Costa, and J.W. Baker) is published on Earthquake Spectra.
29 June 2022: Chenbo Wang, Rodrigo Costa, and Jack Baker presented "Assessing Post-disaster Housing Needs to Inform Disaster Recovery Planning" at the 12th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering in Salt Lake City, Utah.
29 June 2022: Our paper "Integrating Place Attachment into Housing Recovery Simulations to Estimate Population Losses" (R. Costa, C. Wang, and J.W. Baker) is published on Natural Hazards Review.
15 March 2022: Chenbo Wang is awarded a highly competitive UCL Overseas Research Scholarship for his PhD studies at University College London.