Dr Xiao received his undergraduate and postgraduate education in Civil Engineering in Chongqing, China(81-87). Has obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham in 1994 while he was working as a research assistant on DOE and EC Eureka Cim-steel research projects on steel and composite steel structures.

Over 20 years experience of research, design and teach in the field of civil engineering. He had previously researched and lectured in China Academy of Building Research, the Universities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Southampton in UK. He had also worked as a structural engineer at Gifford & Partners, Consulting Engineers, where he was involved in designing of a number of composite steel and concrete structures. The first ever, semi-continuous connected composite steel framed structures was successfully designed and built in 1996 for Southampton Solent University of which he was the chief structural designer.

He was the recipient of Royal Research Fellowship from the Royal Society and Industry Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Engineering. His research interests include computational modelling with finite element analysis on structures and structural materials; steel and composite steel structures; fibrous concrete material and structures; computational simulation on infrastructures.

He has already successfully supervised to completion of over 40 research projects. These include 26 research degree students (10 PhDs, 3 MPhils and 13 MRes), 5 postdoctoral research fellows and an additional 5 M.Sc thesis as the first supervisor. He is currently leading a strong research team (1 post-doctoral senior research assistant, 4 PhDs, 3 MSc and one academic visitor) with a range of research projects being conducted on structural analysis and computation simulation. Author and co-author of one patent, three design books and over 100 published papers.

Research interests

• Computational modelling with finite element analysis on structures
• Nonlinear finite element analysis with tension softening modeling on structural materials
• Steel and composite steel structures
• Structural connections and frames
• Fibrous concrete material and structures
• Non-conventional structural materials including fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) material and structures
• Framed structure and bridge structure dynamics
• Computational simulation on concrete and steel structures under fire
• Computational simulation on train wheel & track interaction
• Computational simulation on traffic volume and traffic signal control
• Computational simulation on public transport priority system with combined modes.