Kun Li, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, F.ASCE, a senior lead geotechnical engineer and assistant vice president at WSP’s Geotechnical and Tunneling Group, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Li has more than 20 years of experience performing professional engineering services on a variety of civil, transportation, geotechnical, geoenvironmental, and construction projects involving, but not limited to, subsurface investigation; geophysical investigations; geotechnical earthquake engineering and liquefaction analysis; finite element analysis; foundations; soil/rock slope stability; in situ soil stabilization; rock stabilization; retaining structures; excavation support systems; preloading; pile installation; slurry walls; tunnels; bridge embankments; hydrologic and hydrogeologic analyses; construction instrumentation/monitoring; and forensic investigations.
He is specialized in geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, foundation design, and project management. He is responsible for project management and technical performance of geotechnical engineering projects for both public and private clients of various business sectors, including architects/engineers, contractors, governmental, industrial, infrastructure, institutional, oil & gas, power, and real estate. He is the lead for geotechnical earthquake engineering and soil dynamics practice.
Li has lectured and published nearly 20 publications, including technical papers and book chapters, and has presented in regional, national, and international conferences on the topics of reliability analysis of soil liquefaction potential using CPT or SPT, liquefaction-induced damage near foundation, liquefaction potential index, liquefaction susceptibility of clayey soils, liquefaction hazard mapping, probabilistic and deterministic models of liquefaction potential, performance-based earthquake engineering design, site response and seismic ground motion analysis, and excavation support and underpinning design.
He began his involvement with ASCE as a student member in college in 2006 and has continued to participate through his ensuing career. He is taking on an active role of contributing his experiences and expertise to the civil engineering community by currently serving as a committee member of several technical committees of ASCE GI, including Risk Assessment and Management and the Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics technical coordination council. He also serves in the Academy of Geo-Professionals Exam Committee, ASCE Metropolitan Section Continuing Education Committee, and is presently the ASCE Metropolitan Section GI Chapter Chair. He has helped to review papers and to organize and chair multiple local, regional, national, and international technical sessions, seminars, and conferences over the years.
In addition to ASCE, Li also has been actively involved in other civil engineering societies and associations, among them the American Council of Engineering Companies, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, International Association of Foundation Drilling, Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance, International Society for Soil Mechanics & Foundation Engineering, Geoprofessional Business Association (formerly Associated Soil and Foundation Engineers), and Deep Foundation Institute.
Li is a registered professional engineer in the states of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Louisiana. He received his bachelor and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Zhejiang University and obtained his doctoral degree in civil engineering from Clemson University. He was granted the status of Diplomate, Geotechnical Engineering by the Academy of Geo-Professionals in 2018.
