2022, April 7
Share this articleSung-Woo Moon is an Assistant Professor at NU SEDS, and working on the research project to evaluate the hazard and risk posed by earthquakes to structures in southern and south-eastern Kazakhstan integrating probabilistic seismic hazard analysis.
Sung-Woo Moon is an Assistant Professor at NU SEDS, and working on the research project to evaluate the hazard and risk posed by earthquakes to structures in southern and south-eastern Kazakhstan integrating probabilistic seismic hazard analysis. Prior to joining NU, Dr. Moon worked at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, as a Postdoctoral research fellow. He has been holding a Professional Engineer (PE) license in Civil Engineering, USA.
Can you please tell us about your educational and professional background?
I earned my BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering at Hanyang University in Seoul, Korea. I had worked at the department of geotechnical engineering at the Yongma Engineering Cooperation for 4 years instead of military service. I was hired to design infrastructures (e.g., roads, bridges, and embankments) for multiple civil engineering projects. After completing the military service, I obtained Ph.D. degree (2014) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA, under the supervision of Prof. Youssef M.A. Hashash, focusing on two research topics such as computational geomechanics and geotechnical earthquake engineering. Before joining NU, I had worked at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore, as a Post-doctoral research fellow. I have been holding a Professional Engineer (PE) license in Civil Engineering, USA.
Can you please tell us about your current research project?
My research areas of interest are mainly divided into four geotechnical/geophysical engineering topics as follows: (1) Natural hazard assessment and mitigation; (2) Geotechnical and geophysical site (soil & rock) characterization; (3) Soil improvement/stabilization; (4) By-product application for sustainable development.
Based on my research interests, I have been joining several research projects as follows:
What are your key research findings?
There are a couple of key research findings as follows
Why did you choose to join NU?
There are three reasons to choose to join NU when I applied for the position. First, I’ve heard that NU is the research-oriented university with the name of Provost (Prof. Ilesanmi Adesida) and international strategic partners. So, I was sure that NU has a huge potential to be a leading university for higher education around the world in the near future. Second, the construction industry is rapidly developing in Kazakhstan, and it requires a high level of expertise to determine the proper analyses and measures to ensure that projects proceed safely in civil engineering especially. Third, I have been enjoying a challenging life with a variety of experiences because of Quotes and Saying about “You Only Live Once”.
What are your future plans?
My future plans are to put my effort into (1) contributing to make NU one of the leading universities around the world; (2) educating geotechnical professionals in the Kazakhstan’s construction industry; (3) researching on multi-hazard risk assessment and mitigation of civil infrastructures, collaborating with lots of local Institutes/Construction companies; (4) boosting geotechnical engineering toward a more adequate solution to addressing complex geotechnical problems.
