The author received his BEng in Civil Engineering from Tongji University in 2007, and subsequently obtained his MSc and PhD from Imperial College London in 2008 and 2011, respectively. Prior to joining Tongji University in 2015, he worked as a structural engineer in ARUP, a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and an Assistant Professor at Newcastle University, UK. Professor Cheng Fang has dedicated over 10 years of his research career to providing technical incentives to encourage design professionals, contractors, and building officials to use novel materials, members, and systems in seismic resilient structural design, helping them stay at the forefront of construction technology. His current research interests include steel and composite structures, smart materials (especially shape memory alloys) and structures, and seismic resilience. He has authored 5 books, published 85 refereed articles in leading SCI-indexed journals with 3000 citations, and secured more than 20 research projects as Principle Investigator (PI). He has obtained 8 authorised patents, and has served as committee member of three design standards. He is now an editorial board member of 7 SCI-indexed journals, and has contributed as reviewer for 30+ international journals. He has promoted the first application of shape memory alloys in building and bridge structures in China.

He is ranked Top 1 scholar in terms of impact under the category of "Topic T.17429: Shape memory effect; Seismology; Superelastic shape", according to SciVal (Scopus). He has been included in the list of "World's Top 2% scientists" from 2020 to 2022.