Rate My Professor Phillip Ooi

Phillip S. K. Ooi serves as Chair and Arthur N. L. Chiu Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (1991), an M.S. in Civil Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984), and a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Leeds (1983). A registered Professional Engineer in Geotechnical Engineering since 1992, Ooi specializes in geotechnical engineering and soil-structure interaction. His professional experience includes positions at the university since 1999, progressing from Assistant Professor to full Professor in 2011 and Department Chair in 2023. Prior roles encompass Senior Geotechnical Engineer at GEI Consultants, Inc. (1991–1998) and Geotechnical Engineer with the Drainage and Irrigation Department in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1984–1987).

Ooi has principalled numerous research grants from the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation, FHWA, and other entities, addressing landslide warning systems, slope instrumentation, pavement distress forensics, geosynthetic reinforced soil bridges, scour prediction, and recycled materials in highways. Key projects include 'Development of a Landslide Warning System for Slopes on Hawaii Island' (2024–2027) and 'Use of InSAR to Track Historical Slope Movements' (2022–2024). He has authored over 60 publications, with highly cited works such as 'Lateral load analysis of single piles and drilled shafts' (Duncan, Evans, Ooi, 1994), 'Resilient modulus models for compacted cohesive soils' (Ooi, Archilla, Sandefur, 2004), and recent contributions on collapsible soils and InSAR monitoring. Awards include the Hi Chang Chai Excellence in Teaching Award (2008, 2014, 2024), Fulbright Research Grants (2019, 2022), and his team's Transportation Research Board Best Paper Award (2019). Ooi teaches courses in geotechnical engineering, deep foundations, and numerical methods.