Dr Liang Cui is a Senior Lecturer in Geotechnics at University of Surrey. Her main expertise is in developing Discrete Element Method (DEM) for modelling granular materials. She has endeavoured to develop DEM codes to analyse the micromechanics in the geotechnical element tests and a wide range of and geotechnical applications, including: Development of DEM platform for granular materials Foundation stability for offshore wind farm Sustainable energy, including offshore wind energy, geothermal energy, methane hydrate exploitation; Locomotion of the off-road vehicles in the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial environments (analysed using both DEM and FEM); Aggregate breakage mechanism for permeable pavements; Bond model for cemented granular materials; Cyclic behaviour of rubberised backfill soil for integral abutment bridges; etc. Her second research area is characterising of functional materials, including polymeric materials, porous materials and soft tissues. She has worked on assessing energy absorption capacities of polymeric foam materials and granular materials, wave propagation behaviours through porous materials and mechanical behaviours of skin under hypobaric pressure.