Rate My Professor Zongjun Li

Dr. Zongjun Li is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering and Technology at UNSW Canberra, University of New South Wales. He earned his PhD from UNSW and served in postdoctoral roles as Research Associate, Research Fellow, Teaching Officer, and Sessional Teaching Officer at UNSW Canberra and Shenzhen University from 2017 to 2022. Li teaches courses including ZEIT 3501 Engineering Materials, ZEIT 4014 Impact Dynamics, ZEIT 8233 Explosive Ordnance Technology, and ZEIT 4500/4501 Engineering Final Year Projects. As an accredited supervisor, he oversees PhD students on topics such as sustainable materials using hemp, smart metastructures, sustainable energy storage with machine and deep learning, and AI models for structural analysis.

His research interests include sustainable high-performance engineered geopolymer composites, fibre-reinforced sustainable cementitious composites for various applications, lithium-ion battery state of health under extreme conditions, deep learning-based damage assessment of hybrid FRP-concrete structures, hybrid FRP-concrete and FRP bar reinforced sustainable concrete under extreme loadings, functionally smart design and manufacture of 3D printed battery structures, sustainable materials and structures, and AI/machine learning driven models. He has secured grants as lead Chief Investigator on Start-Up, RRP, EO-SFRG, and BA projects, and as Chief Investigator on EOTP, UNSW RIS 2025, UNSW-H, and UNSW RIS 2026. Key publications encompass 'From Portland cement to alkali-activated system: advances in wood-cement composites for sustainable building applications' (Cleaner Materials, 2026, with Gigar FZ, Khennane A, Liow JL, Tekle BH), 'Characterisation of a novel sustainable wood-geopolymer masonry units' (Developments in the Built Environment, 2024, with Gigar FZ, Khennane A, Liow JL, Tekle BH), 'Experimental and numerical analyses of flexural behaviour of hybrid LRS FRP-concrete-steel double-skin tubular beams with eccentric encased steel tube' (Construction and Building Materials, 2024, with Zhou Y, Cai F, Zhu Z, Sui L), 'Performance of a hybrid GFRP-concrete beam subject to low-velocity impacts' (Composite Structures, 2018, with Khennane A, Hazell PJ, Remennikov AM), and 'Impact behaviour of pultruded GFRP composites under low-velocity impact loading' (Composite Structures, 2017, with Khennane A, Hazell PJ, Brown AD). Li has authored 14 journal articles, 6 book chapters, and 10 conference papers. His awards include Best Paper Award at the 8th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM 2017), Best Paper Award at the 48th Australasian Universities Building Education Association (AUBEA 2025) International Conference, APO, GTTP, CDI completion, and undergraduate scholarships. He reviews for journals such as Materials, Construction and Building Materials, Composite Structures, Journal of Computational Physics, Engineering Fracture Mechanics, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Mechanics of Materials and Structures, and Scientific Reports.