Dr. Ming Cai, a licensed professional engineer in Ontario, is a Full Professor in the School of Engineering and Computer Science and holds a position as MIRARCO Geomechanics Research Chair. Dr. Cai has over 30 years’ research, consulting, education, and industry experience. He is the author and co-author of more than 200 publications, and is among the World's top 2% scientists ranked by Stanford University. He is nationally and internationally well recognized for his expertise and contributions to rock mechanics and rock engineering and is a recipient of the prestigious John Franklin Award in Rock Mechanics from the Canadian Geotechnical Society in 2017. Dr. Cai serves as an editorial board member for eight top international journals in the fields related to rock mechanics and rock engineering.

Currently, Dr. Cai is working on various projects related to studying post-peak strength of brittle rock, prediction of stand-up time of mine drift in jointed rock mass, synthetic rock mass modeling of jointed rock mass incorporating 3D DFN, dynamic support design for deep mines, development of innovative support technology for safe and cost-effective mining in burst-prone mines.