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Architectural Engineering and Construction Science

Bill X. Zhang | Professor

Photo of Bill Zhang

Don and Linda Glaser – Carl and Mary Ice Cornerstone Teaching Scholar

Ph.D. - 2004, Lehigh University
Civil Engineering
D.E. - 1998, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
Structural Engineering
M.E. - 1994, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
Structural Engineering
B.E. - 1991, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
Industry and Civil Building Engineering

Contact information

2038 Seaton Hall
785-532-5964
billz@k-state.edu

Professional experience

Professor Bill Zhang joined K-State in the Department of Architectural Engineering and Construction Science in August 2011 as an assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2023. Prior to K-State, Zhang taught at Temple University as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from January 2010 to July 2011. Before his academic career, Dr. Zhang practiced building structural design at two world-renowned Architecture/Engineering firms. From July 2006 to January 2010, he was a project structural engineer at KlingStubbins (now a Jacobs company) in Philadelphia. He worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP (SOM) in San Francisco from February 2005 to June 2006 as a senior structural engineer. In both firms, he played a major and leading role in structural design of many large-scale complex building projects all over the world, such as King Abdullah Financial District (Riyadh, Saudi Arab), Amgen Seattle Campus (Seattle, WA), Harvard University Northwest Labs (Cambridge, MA), Beijing Financial District (Beijing, China), and Huawei Shanghai R&D Center (Shanghai, China), to name a few. Zhang received his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University in 2004. He obtained his Bachelor’s, Masters and Doctorate degrees in Engineering from Southeast University at Nanjing China in the 1990s. He worked as a structural engineer for East China Architectural Design and Research Institute (ECADI) at Shanghai in the late 1990s. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in multiple states, including California, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Washington. He is a licensed Structural Engineer in California.

Research

Zhang's research areas include steel and composite structures, innovative and resilient structural systems and components against multi-hazards; structural vibration assessment and mitigation; and cold-formed steel structures. His prior work on special steel moment frames with Reduced Beam Section (RBS) connections contributed largely to the prequalification of RBS connections with deep columns by American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) in its standard ANSI/AISC 358 – Prequalified Connections for Special and Intermediate Steel Moment Frames for Seismic Application. Dr. Zhang is currently co-editing a design handbook on connections between cold-formed steel members and different construction materials for an ASCE special project, in which he serves as a chapter lead on connections between cold-formed steel and hot-rolled steel members. Dr. Zhang is collaborating with researchers in China on structural vibration studies, focusing on vibration performance of long-span steel floor structures such as high-speed rail stations, and vibration mitigation. Recently Dr. Zhang has been working with Dr. Shing Chang and his students from IMSE on resilient and sustainable building design.

Zhang has served 17 master’s students as the major professor and a committee member. He currently has 5 master’s students as the major professor. He has worked with several undergraduate student research projects.

Academic highlights

Dr. Zhang has published a number of papers in highly regarded peer-reviewed journals, such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Structural Engineering and Journal of Architectural Engineering. He also published dozens of paper in conference proceedings and has given many presentations in high profile venues. Dr. Zhang served National Science Foundation grant review panels. He is now a voting member of American Iron and Steel Institute’s Committee on Specifications, Committee on Framing Standards, and COFS Code of Standard Practice Subcommittee. He is an active member of ASCE’s Committee of Method of Design, and Committee of Cold-Formed Steel Members.

During his academic career, Dr. Zhang has won a number of awards, including 2005 Chairman’s Award and Merit Award by the James F. Lincoln Foundation, 2013 Academic Excellence Award by the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President of Kansas State University, and the Big 12 Fellowship. He is also the recipient of 2015 Outstanding Assistant Professor Award by the College of Engineering, and multiple time recipient of GE Johnson Construction Faculty Award and Mark Keenan Family Architectural Engineering and Construction Science Faculty Award.