De Xie is a Professor and Dean of the School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, the People’s Republic of China. Prior to this, he was a Senior Engineer and Division Leader at R&D at the Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corporation from 1990 to 1998; a Research Fellow in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A. from 2003 to 2004, and a Senior Structural Engineer at the AlphaStar Corporation, Long Beach, CA, U.S.A. from 2005 to 2007. He received his B.S. in 1987 and M.S. in 1990 from HUST, all in Engineering Mechanics; he obtained a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 from Clemson University, Clemson, SC, U.S.A. Dr. Xie has been working in the area of the design and building of ship and naval architectures, with a particular interest in ship mechanics. His recent research topics have covered the fatigue and fracture of marine structures, large-amplitude motion of mooring and/or multiple floating bodies, ice loads and polar ships, LNG independent type B prismatic tanks, bed levelers, and self-elevating units to level rubble bases, etc., under the development of direct analysis approaches. Dr. Xie is the author or co-author of two books, more than 200 refereed journal papers, and numerous conference papers and presentations. He has been included among the “Top 25 Hottest Articles” of Elsevier Science Direct, the “Emerging Research Front” of SCI/ESI, and HCP of WOS.