Jie Han
Denis Kalumba
Xinbao Yu- 1Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States
- 2Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- 3Department of Civil Engineering , University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, VA, United States
Editorial on the Research Topic
Research Topic Editor Digest 2023–2024 Rising Stars in Geotechnical Engineering
Eligibility criteria required nominees to be either under 35 years of age or to have completed their doctoral degree within the last 10 years, as of October 1 of the year preceding recognition. Nominees were evaluated based on the following information: (1) Total number of journal papers published; (2) Total number of citations received; (3) h-index; (4) Total research funding secured to date, and; (5) Awards and honours received to date.
The Research Topic received 8 submissions from emerging stars in the field, with six papers accepted after review by the selection committee. These researchers, nominated either by experts or through self-nomination, were rigorously reviewed and selected by our committee. The titles of the articles published under the Rising Stars Research Topic can be found at https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/61677/rising-stars-in-geotechnical-engineering/articles.
The final selection of recipients is overseen by a committee chaired by the section’s chief editor. The committee considers several factors, including balance across subfields (e.g., soil mechanics, rock mechanics, engineering geology, mining, ground improvement, geosynthetics, exploration, tunneling, geo-environmental engineering, waste disposal), geographic distribution, gender, ethnic background, and other relevant factors.
Below are brief descriptions of the awardees (by the time of nomination):
• Jinhyun Choo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea
Papers: 39 | Google Citations: 1558 | h-index: 21
Area of Contributions: Geologic fractures
Published Article: Phase-field modeling of geologic fractures.
• Amarnath Hegde, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Dharwad, India
Papers: 46 | Google Citations: 1640 | h-index: 20
Area of Contributions: Geosynthetics
Published Article: Mitigation of ground vibrations using geocells: a mini-review.
Assistant Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand
Papers: 51 | Google Citations: 965 | h-index: 15
Area of Contributions: Recycled materials
Published Article: Innovations in recycled construction materials: paving the way towards sustainable road infrastructure.
• Yu Qian, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, United States
Papers: 79 | Google Citations: 2435 | h-index: 26
Area of Contributions: Railway engineering
Published Article: Intelligent railroad inspection and monitoring.
• Fei Zhang, Ph.D.
Professor, Geotechnical Engineering, Hohai University
Papers: 59 | Google Citations: 1550 | h-index: 18
Area of Contributions: Earth structures
Published Article: Recent advances in stability analysis and design of 3D slopes.
• Haizuo Zhou, Ph.D.
Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, China
Papers: 73 | Google Citations: 1306 | h-index: 21
Area of Contributions: Ground improvement
Published Article: Fragility assessment for rainfall-induced embankments on silty soils.
Author contributions
JH: Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing. DK: Writing – review and editing. XY: Writing – review and editing.
Funding
The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declare that no Generative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
Publisher’s note
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Keywords: geotechnical engineering, rising stars, nomination, recognition, accomplishment
Citation: Han J, Kalumba D and Yu X (2025) Editorial: Research Topic editor digest 2023–2024 rising stars in geotechnical engineering. Front. Built Environ. 11:1552392. doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2025.1552392
Received: 28 December 2024; Accepted: 27 March 2025;
Published: 15 April 2025.
Edited and reviewed by:
Izuru Takewaki, Kyoto Arts and Crafts University, JapanCopyright © 2025 Han, Kalumba and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Jie Han, amllaGFuQGt1LmVkdQ==