Dr Xiaohui Chen

Profile

Dr Xiaohui Chen is an internationally recognised researcher in Artificial Intelligence for Civil and Environmental Engineering, pioneering the integration of Physics-Informed Machine Learning (PIML), AI-for-Science and Multiphysics modelling to address complex engineering and environmental challenges. His research develops next-generation computational methodologies that combine physics, mathematics and artificial intelligence to deliver trustworthy prediction, optimisation and decision-making for infrastructure and environmental systems.

His research spans fluid dynamics, groundwater, geotechnics, environmental engineering, sustainable agriculture and climate resilience, with applications including intelligent infrastructure, water systems, tunnelling, carbon capture and storage, environmental pollution, nuclear waste disposal and digital agriculture. His pioneering research has established internationally recognised methodologies that are increasingly adopted across computational mechanics, geotechnical engineering, hydrology and environmental modelling.

Dr Chen is the Founder and Director of the Geomodelling and Artificial Intelligence Group, one of the University's leading research groups applying AI to engineering and environmental systems. The group currently comprises 2 postdoctoral researchers and 10 PhD researchers, and has secured over £3.7 million in competitive funding from UKRI, Horizon Europe, industry and international partners. Through close collaboration with world-leading universities, research institutes and industrial partners, the group develops cutting-edge AI technologies to enable resilient infrastructure, sustainable resource management and climate adaptation.

International and National Leadership

Dr Chen provides international and national leadership in Artificial Intelligence for Civil and Environmental Engineering, contributing to research strategy, policy, professional societies and scholarly publishing through several high-profile appointments:

• DAFNI Fellow, UKRI Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure, leading the advancement of AI-for-Science for resilient national infrastructure. (News)
• Board Member, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), appointed by the Northern Ireland Minister for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), contributing to the strategic direction of AI, environmental science and sustainable agri-food research. (News)
• Task Force Leader for Physics-Informed Machine Learning, International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) Technical Committee 309 (Machine Learning), leading international research collaboration and strategic development of Physics-Informed AI.
• Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Geomechanics and Geoengineering: An International Journal (Taylor & Francis), leading the journal's strategic development and AI research portfolio.
• UK Representative, ISSMGE Technical Committee 309 (Machine Learning).
• UK Representative, ISSMGE Technical Committee 215 (Environmental Geotechnics).
• Committee Member, British Standards Institution (BSI).
• Editorial Board Member, Environmental Geotechnics (Institution of Civil Engineers).

Research Leadership & Impact

i) Pioneering Physics-Informed Artificial Intelligence for Engineering

Dr Chen has played a leading role in establishing Physics-Informed Machine Learning (PIML) within civil and environmental engineering. His group’s advances, including Loss-Attentional Physics-Informed Neural Networks (LA-PINN), integrate governing physics with AI to deliver trustworthy, interpretable and efficient models across computational mechanics, geotechnics, hydrology and environmental engineering. His leadership in AI-enabled groundwater modelling has also gained international recognition, with three of the four groundwater-modelling studies highlighted in UNESCO’s 2025 report originating from his research group.

ii) Building an International Research Community

Dr Chen has been instrumental in building the international research community in Physics-Informed Machine Learning. Through his leadership of the ISSMGE Task Force on Physics-Informed Machine Learning, he has established international collaborations, coordinated global research activities and promoted interdisciplinary knowledge exchange between engineering, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence. His leadership of the internationally collaborative Direction Paper on Physics-Informed Machine Learning in Geotechnical Engineering (2025) has helped define future research priorities and accelerate the adoption of trustworthy AI across engineering disciplines.

iii)Advancing Engineering Science through Authoritative Scholarship

Dr Chen has made significant contributions to the theoretical foundations of engineering through his research on coupled multiphysics processes. His UKRI-funded monograph, Multiphase Flows in Deformable Geomaterials: Chemo-Physical Mixture Coupling Theory and Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, provides one of the first comprehensive treatments of chemo-physical mixture coupling theory and non-equilibrium thermodynamics for porous media. He also championed the internationally recognised themed issue "Physical-Chemical Coupling in Environmental Geotechnics", bringing together leading international researchers to advance understanding of coupled multiphysics processes and helping to shape future research directions in geoenvironmental engineering.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director of Research and Innovation

Research interests

My research has garnered funding from prestigious research councils such as EPSRC, NERC, Horizon EU and CSC, as well as from international industry leaders across the UK, EU, and Asia. Below is a selected list of grants:

• UKRI (Fellow): DAFNI Fellowship, 2026–2027.
• Horizon Europe (PI), 2026–2028: MSCA Fellowship, SMART-WET: Next-Generation Intelligent Constructed Wetlands for Sustainable Water Purification and Phosphorus Recovery.
• Horizon Europe (Co-PI), 2025–2027: DigitalBI: Digital Twin-Empowered Intelligent Maintenance of Buried Infrastructure through Investigating Deterioration and Resilience Mechanisms.
• Horizon Europe (UK PI), 2024–2028: MSCA Staff Exchanges, GRID: Geotechnical Resilience through Intelligent Design. UK lead for Physics-Informed Machine Learning.
• NERC (Co-I), 2023–2024: iCASP Mini Project, Prioritising River Habitat Improvements for Biodiversity Net Gain Using Machine Learning. Supported one six-month PDRA.
• EPSRC (PI), 2023–2024: MSc Team Research Project, Flow Behaviour in Bio-Soils Influenced by Organic Matter and Mineralogy. Funded through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fluid Dynamics (EP/S022732/1).
• EPSRC (PI), 2022–2026: Temperature–Water–Plant–Soil Coupled Modelling for Biogeotechnics (EP/W524372/1). CASE studentship jointly funded by N2 Applied.
• Horizon 2020 (PI), 2022–2024: MSCA Fellowship, BioGeoInterface (Grant Agreement No. 101031565).
• NERC and Deltares (PI), 2021–2024: Deep Learning for Groundwater Prediction (NE/S007458/1).
• STRABAG Tunnelling (PI), 2021–2023: Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Coupled Modelling for Tunnelling.
• N8 AgriFood (PI), 2021: Real-Time Moisture and Temperature Modelling for Sustainable Agriculture under Extreme Weather-Induced Pest Attack.
• Southern University of Science and Technology and University of Leeds (PI), 2020–2024: Artificial Intelligence for Surface-Water and Groundwater Modelling.
• Kuwait Oil Company (PI), 2019–2024: Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Coupled Modelling for Carbon Capture and Storage.
• Shell and China Scholarship Council (PI), 2019–2023: Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical Modelling for Shale Gas.
• EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, Phase 3 (Co-I), 2018–2021: EP/R511717/1.
• Kuwait Oil Company (PI), 2018–2022: Reactive-Transport Modelling of Naturally Occurring Radionuclides.
• White Rose University Consortium (PI), 2016–2020: BIOSAS: Sustainable Agriculture—Biochemical, Physical and Biological Functions of Sludge in Agricultural Soils.

Qualifications

• PhD The University of Manchester, 2010
• MSc Dalian University of Technology, 2007
• BEng Dalian University of Technology, 2003

Professional memberships

• Fellow of The Institution of Environmental Science
• Chartered Environmentalist
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy

Student education

I presently teach:

• CIVE5162 (MSc Geotechnical Engineering) Constitutive Model and Numerical Analysis (Module Leader)
• CIVE5574/5575 (MSc EEPM and Geotechnical Engineering) Groundwater Pollution and Contaminated Land (Module Leader)
• CIVE3750 Individual Research Project
• CIVE5755 Individual Research Project

Research groups and institutes

• Water, Public Health and Environmental Engineering

Current postgraduate researchers

• Sulaiman Abdullah
• Yousef Baqer
• Y MA
• Jianting Feng
• Maria Luisa Taccari
• Paul R Howlett
• He Yang
• Jiahui Zhou
• Yanjie Song
• Biao Yuan
• Liyang Mao
• Jiaxian Li