Information about yourself
Hi everyone! I’m Shihui, and I’m from China. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Offshore Oil and Gas Engineering from Yangtze University, and later completed a master’s in Oil and Gas Engineering at China University of Petroleum (Beijing). After my graduation, I spent a year working in Shenzhen for a company providing offshore oil engineering services. I then moved to the Netherlands, where I’m currently pursuing my PhD at the University of Twente.
Information about your project
The topic of my PhD is “Towards a Unified Constitutive Model for Saturated Granular Fluids and Solids.” My research focuses on understanding the entire process of submarine landslides—from the initial failure and identification of triggering conditions, to the post-failure flow behavior, where the sliding mass behaves like a non-Newtonian fluid, and finally to the deposition phase when the movement stops. I aim to develop a unified constitutive model that can describe the stress and deformation across all these stages. This model will be validated through comparisons with numerical simulations and experimental data, and ultimately applied to improve the prediction of landslide initiation and runout distance in real-world scenarios.
Why POSEIDON?
POSEIDON is an ambitious and prestigious EU Horizon MSCA project that addresses one of the most pressing challenges of our time—offshore geohazards in the face of climate change. It brings together a diverse network of top-tier universities, research institutes, industry partners, and government bodies across Europe.
From early on during my master’s studies, I knew I wanted to pursue a PhD. My time in industry made me realize that my true passion lies in exploring how the world works through fundamental research. I was fortunate to come across the POSEIDON project on Academic Transfer, a Dutch academic job platform. The research theme immediately resonated with my background and passion for marine-related studies, and I knew this was the perfect opportunity to continue working in a field I deeply care about. After several rounds of interviews, I was thrilled to be selected as the top candidate and to join the research team at the University of Twente. Since arriving, I’ve had a wonderful experience working with kind and supportive supervisors and colleagues.
Beyond my home institution, POSEIDON also connects us with other partners from across Europe. The opportunity to collaborate with leading experts from different countries and institutions is incredibly exciting. Equally inspiring is being part of a vibrant network of fellow PhD candidates within the project. For many of us, this is a once-in-a-lifetime journey—sharing our struggles, supporting one another, and growing together. It’s a warm and motivating environment that I deeply value.
I truly believe that being part of POSEIDON will make this PhD journey not only a meaningful academic pursuit but also a transformative personal experience—one that helps me uncover not just the hidden mechanisms of our world, but also more about myself.
