Education

• Ph.D. in Civil and Systems Engineering (Structural Engineering), Johns Hopkins University, 2021–2025
• M.Eng. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering), Tongji University, Shanghai, China, 2018–2021
• B.Eng. in Civil Engineering (Structural Engineering), Central South University, Changsha, China, 2014–2018

Areas of Research

My research bridges structural fire engineering, computational mechanics, and risk analysis to build safer and more resilient communities. I develop physics-based models and data-driven frameworks to understand how structures and infrastructure behave under fire and other extreme hazards, and how to design them safely, economically and sustainably over their full service life.

Selected Publications

• J1. Gernay, T., Ma, C., Renard, S., Franssen, J.-M., Zehfuß, J., McNamee, R., Bamonte, P. &Robert, F. Testing timber columns for resistance until fire burnout: Role of thermal wave, smoldering, and active suppression. Engineering Structures 351, 121991 (2026).
• J2. Ma, C. & Gernay, T. Economic Impact of Performance-Based Fire Design of Composite Steel Frame Structures. Engineering Structures 338, 120542 (2025).
• J3. Ma, C. & Gernay, T. Fragility curves for structural fire performance of various composite floor designs under natural fire. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 110820 (2025).
• J4. Ma, C., Garcia-Castillo, E., Paya-Zaforteza, I. & Gernay, T. Modeling fire resistance of timber columns: Influence of elevated-temperature material models in finite element analysis. Structures 82, 110629 (2025).
• J5. Ma, C., Van Coile, R. & Gernay, T. Fire protection costs in composite buildings for cost benefit analysis of fire designs. Journal of Constructional Steel Research 215, 108517 (2024).
• J6. Ma, C. & Gernay, T. Numerical analysis of full-scale structural fire tests on composite floor systems. Fire Safety Journal 146, 104182 (2024).
• J7. Ma, C., Yan, X. & Gernay, T. Ductile fracture of dual-phase steel at elevated temperatures. Engineering Structures 288, 116256 (2023).
• J8. Ma, C., Lu, Z., Wang, D. & Wang, Z. Study on the damping mechanisms of a suspended particle damper attached to a wind turbine tower. Wind Struct 33, 103–114 (2021).