Biographical note

Hong Xia, DEng, Professor, the College of Nuclear Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University, China. Her research interests focus on the control and test of nuclear power plants and health management and prediction of engineering equipment. She has presided over more than 20 high-level research projects including several funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. She has won eight national- and provincial-level science and technology progress awards and two national-level teaching achievement awards. She has published five textbooks and book translations. Hong Xia is a member of the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Steering Committee of Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education of China. Now she serves as Vice President of the Beam Technology Branch of Chinese Nuclear Society and Chairwoman of the Nuclear Society of Heilongjiang Province, China.

Dr. Yongkuo Liu is a professor at Harbin Engineering University, China. His research interests include nuclear power operation and safety technology (condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, PHM), nuclear power plant control and testing and the application of artificial intelligence in nuclear engineering. He has presided over and undertaken more than 30 national projects on the pre-research and planning of nuclear power plants. In 2007, he participated in the NSRA Nuclear Researcher Exchange Program and worked on the safe operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants at the Puxian Nuclear Power Decommissioning Research Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency. He is currently Executive Director of the Nuclear Power Operation and Application Technology Branch of the Chinese Nuclear Society. He also serves as Consultant Expert in the Nuclear Society Expert Database of Shandong Province, China and Consultant Expert in nuclear radiation on the Radiation Accident Emergency Advisory Board of Heilongjiang Province, China. He has won the second prize of Science and Technology Progress Awards of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the first prize of Heilongjiang Science and Technology Progress Awards, the third prize of Harbin Science and Technology Progress Awards and the first prize of Heilongjiang University Science and Technology Awards.