Professor Charles NG Wang-Wai is the Vice-President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)), overseeing graduate studies related affairs and all central research facilities on the GZ campus.

Prof. Ng is also the Dean of HKUST Fok Ying Tung Graduate School, CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability and Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at HKUST, the Vice-President of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Ng earned his PhD degree from the University of Bristol, the UK in 1993. After carrying out post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge between 1993 and 1995, he returned to Hong Kong and joined HKUST as Assistant Professor in 1995 and rose through the ranks to become Chair Professor in 2011. As a world authority on unsaturated soil mechanics and eco-geotechnical engineering, Prof. Ng is a Changjiang Scholar (Chair Professorship in Geotechnical Engineering), a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, and an Overseas Fellow of Churchill College, the University of Cambridge. Prof. Ng has received numerous awards in China, including the 2002 Mao Yisheng Youth Award by the Chinese Institute of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, the 2007 Overseas Young Scholar Award by the National Science Foundation of China, the 2013 Scientific Advancement Technological Award (1st class) by the Ministry of Education, the 2015 Scientific Technological Advancement Award (2nd class) by the State Council of China, and the 2020 National Natural Science Award (2nd class) by the State Council of China.

Internationally, Prof. Ng has also received many best paper awards including the Telford Premium Prize from the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the Henry Adams Award from the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK), the first Tan Swan Beng Award from the Southeast Asian Geotechnical Society, and the R. M. Quigley Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society three times.

He is the Vice-Chairman of the Rock and Soil Mechanics Division of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, as well as a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. Currently, he is an Editor of the Canadian Geotechnical Journal. Prof. Ng was the elected President of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering for the period from 2017 to 2022.