About
Dr Xu Dai is a Lecturer in Structural Engineering at the University of Liverpool, and currently holding a RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship from Royal Academy of Engineering as one of the seven awardees for 2024/25. His research is centred in structural fire engineering to mitigate losses arising from fire-induced structural failure worldwide by developing theoretical methods for performance-based design, via coupling structural engineering and fire engineering using advanced modelling and experimental techniques.
Prior to his current position, he was a Senior Lecturer in Fire Engineering at Birmingham City University in 2022 - 2024, leading the first UK BEng degree apprenticeship in fire engineering. Xu was also a senior structural fire engineer at Buro Happold based in London office in 2021 - 2022, specialising in structural fire engineering assessment for fire protection optimisation to achieve sustainable engineering design solutions.
In 2019 - 2021, Xu was a foreign guest researcher at the National Fire Research Laboratory (NFRL), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA. He was fully funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce. His work was mainly contributing on the research project Steel-concrete composite floor systems subject to fire, to evaluate structural resilience and failure modes of the steel-composite structure from system level exposed to large compartment fires.
In 2017 - 2020, Xu was a post-doctoral research associate at the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, on research projects Characterization of travelling fires in large compartments funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) in European Commission; and Challenging-RISK, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), with an integrated focus on characterising realistic fires in large open-plan compartment of office buildings (i.e., “travelling fires”) for sustainable performance-based structural fire design, via both numerical and experimental methods.
Education:
Ph.D. in Structural Fire Engineering, University of Edinburgh, UK, 2013 – 2018
M.Sc. in Structural Engineering (with distinction), University of Sheffield, UK, 2011 - 2012
BEng in Engineering Mechanics (with first class), Chongqing Jiaotong University, China, 2005 – 2009
PhD opportunities:
If you're interested in a PhD project, please contact Xu directly via his email. He could help you gain PhD studentship via different routes.
Prizes or Honours
- Top Cited Article (Fire and Materials, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2023)
- Frederick Palmer Prize (Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), 2022)
- Outstanding Paper for Emerald Literati Awards (Emerald Publishing, 2022)
- Top Cited Article (Fire and Materials, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2022)
- Best Presentation, Runner Up (11th International Conference on Structures in Fire (SiF 2020), 2020)
- Best Paper Award (11th International Conference on Structures in Fire (SiF 2020), 2020)
- Most Cited Fire Safety Journal Articles (Scopus, 2020)
- Endorsement of Global Talent (Exceptional Promise) (Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng), UK, 2020)
Funded Fellowships
- RAEng/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (Leverhulme Trust, 2024 - 2025)