State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection

The State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection (the Lab) develops from the state professional laboratory built in 1989 on the basis of the state key discipline of Geological Engineering of CDUT (the former Chengdu College of Geology) after approval from the former State Planning Commission and State Education Commission. It was approved as the “Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province” by the People’s Government of Sichuan Province in 2001, became the "State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base" co-built by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Sichuan Province in 2002 and got approved to be the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2003. The Ministry of Science and Technology approved it in October 2007 to be included in the State Key Laboratory Project, accepted it in December 2010, and evaluated it with a result of Excellence in 2015. And it also came top with a remark of "Excellence" in the two assessments of key laboratory by the Ministry of Land and Resources in 2012 and 2018. As the only state key laboratory of geological hazard prevention and control, the Lab has been on the scientific and technological forefront in the field, providing important support to hazard prevention and alleviation in the country. The academic board of the Lab is led by Peng Jianbing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Since the 1980's, the engineering geological research team, led by the veteran engineering geologist Prof. Zhang Zhuoyuan, have been dedicated themselves to the development and technological innovation of Engineering Geology in China. In recent years, the development of state key laboratories has reinforced the role of the Lab in leading the way in the discipline. Prof. Huang Runqiu has been the chair of the Engineering Geology Committee of Geological Society of China for two successive terms, spearheading the continuous innovation and development of the discipline. As the vice-president of the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG) since 2010, Prof. Huang has been keen to promote greater international engagement for the country’s discipline of Engineering Geology. He set the secretariat of IAEG in China, which has greatly increased the global status and influence of the country’s Engineering Geology.

In recent years, especially after the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, the Lab has held multiple sessions of LARAM international doctoral training courses. In 2013, the Lab launched and led the initiative to establish the International Research Association on Large Landslides (iRALL). Up to now, more than 9000 young Scholars from over 20 countries and areas have taken the iRALL international doctoral training courses to improve their abilities to solve the risk of large landslide in practice, which has created a huge amount of influence and is widely acclaimed in the global community. In 2017, the Lab began to recruit overseas postdoctoral fellows and by now 12 have been admitted. In 2019, supported by the Higher Education Institutions Discipline Innovation and Talent Introduction Program, it began to establish the “International Collaborative Research Base for Geological Hazard Prevention and Control” and introduced 18 foreign experts.

Now, the Lab has become an important base for incubation of high-calibre talents and scientific research in the field of engineering geology in the country, and as well an important center for research on geological hazards in the world.