Xiaohui Chen

Dr Xiaohui Chen is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and Founder Director of the Geomodelling and AI Group. His research focuses on physics-informed machine learning (PIML) for engineering and environmental systems, particularly in subsurface hydrology, soil–water processes, and climate resilience. He serves as Task Force Leader for Physics-Informed Machine Learning within the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE), providing international leadership in this emerging field. He is also a Board Member of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Northern Ireland. 

 Through the DAFNI Fellowship, he aims to develop next-generation AI-for-Science frameworks that integrate physical modelling and data-driven approaches to support national infrastructure resilience. The fellowship will focus on building scalable, trustworthy, and reusable digital tools and infrastructure for environmental risk prediction, including applications in water systems, land degradation, and climate adaptation, while strengthening collaboration between academia, industry, and government.