Research Theme Champion: Environment and Sustainability

Associate Professor Yixia (Sarah) Zhang

School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics
sarah.zhang@westernsydney.edu.au

Yixia (Sarah) Zhang is an Associate Professor in Engineering in the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics. She has wide research experience in multi-disciplinary areas including construction and building materials, composite materials and structures and structural engineering across civil engineering, mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering and biomechanical engineering. In civil engineering, she is keen in developing durable, green and environment friendly construction materials by using industrial by-products and wastes. She has also been working on high-performance fibre reinforced cementitious composite, such as high strength and ultra-ductile materials and impact and blast resistant materials aiming to achieve durable, resilient and sustainable infrastructures. In mechanical/aeronautical engineering, she focuses on studies on composite materials and structures aiming to enhance the structural integrity and performance. She has a strong expertise on numerical modelling and analysis and in addition to using the experimental technique she also uses advanced numerical modelling to calibrate the mechanical behaviour of materials and model the structural behaviour including those under extreme loading conditions such as impact/blast/fatigue/fire loadings. Up until May 2019, she has published over 220 peer-reviewed scholarly research papers, and awarded research grants of over $2.5 million from various schemes including ARC Discovery Projects.

Before she moved to WSU in January 2019, Sarah worked at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney for 15 years, including 11 years at UNSW Canberra. She started her academic career at UNSW after working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland from 2001-2002, Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea from 2002-2003 and at UNSW from 2004-2006. She obtained her PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Hong Kong in 2001 and Bachelor degree and Master degree from Tianjin University, China in 1992 and 1995 respectively.

As a Research Theme Champion for Environment and Sustainability, Sarah aims to build cross-disciplinary teams across the University, to promote efficient and productive links with stakeholders outside the University such as industries, governments and funding agencies, and to bring them together to address the grand challenges on environment and sustainability aiming to bring significant and positive impact to the development of society.

Sarah has established wide links and collaboration with national and international partners across multi-disciplinary areas. “Very few issues/challenges could be addressed/solved by one single expertise and usually multiple expertise are needed. We should think big and work together with people from different disciplines along with the stakeholders to address the grand challenge”, she says. “By working together, utilising the various expert skills, knowledge, experience and resources, it opens many possibilities and opportunities”.