Dr. Ser-Tong Quek is currently semi-retired Professor in Structural Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He was Keppel Chair Professor from 2018-2020, served as Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 2015-2020, Vice Dean (Graduate Studies) of the Faculty of Engineering from 2010-2015, and Director of the Global Engineering Program from 2009-2012. Prof. Quek graduated from Monash University with BEng (1st class) in 1979 and joined the National University of Singapore in 1982. He obtained his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 1986 under the late Professor Alfredo Ang. He has published more than 200 journal papers covering topics such as structural health monitoring, systems identification and control, smart materials, reliability analysis, stochastic simulation and protective structures. He was awarded the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Visiting Fellowship (1988), IES KYD Gin prize for prestigious publication (1990), Defence Technology Prize for Research (2006), Singapore Public Administration Bronze Medal (2018) and the Institution of Engineers Singapore Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award (2024).

Dr. Xiang-Lin Gu is Distinguished Professor at Tongji University. He is a chief scientist of China's key research and development plan. He currently serves as the director of the Key Laboratory of Performance Evolution and Control for Engineering Structures, Ministry of Education, and also holds positions such as a member of the International Committee on Structural Analysis of Architectural Heritage, Chairman of the Chinese Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), Chairman of the Chinese Chapter of the International Union of Laboratories and Testing and Research Institutes for Materials and Structures (RILEM), Deputy Director of the National Steering Committee for Professional Degree Graduate Education, and Vice Chairman of the China Civil Engineering Society. He is mainly engaged in scientific research and teaching in the field of structural performance evolution and control. He has created a design method for predicting the service life of structures based on time-variant reliability, expanded the theory of the whole-life design of structures; optimized the simulation and analysis method of the multi-scale failure process of concrete structures based on the discrete element method, enriched the theory of structural disaster control; proposed a method for overall performance evaluation and functional enhancement of existing structures based on perception information and new structural materials, and perfected the theory of the whole-life maintenance of structures.