Dr Gao is a Naval Architect with a PhD degree in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, and a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators.

Dr Gao has been working as an expert witness in arbitration and court proceedings in England, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Denmark, and Hong Kong since 2015.

Her areas of expertise cover all the naval architectural aspects of both marine and offshore structures, including but not limited to marine structure integrity, structure health monitoring, hydrodynamics of vessels and offshore structures, mooring and seakeeping, decarbonisation and vessel performance, and subsea engineering.

As an author of many articles published in journals and conferences, and with one patent filed in three countries, Dr Gao has worked in both academia and industry for more than 18 years. She conducted investigations on numerous marine casualties and incidents, including vessel groundings, collisions, propulsion and bearing failures, propeller performance issues, fatigue failures and mooring failures. She has advised on various types of new-build ship disputes and offshore platform disputes regarding design defects and contractual compliance.

Dr Gao conduct Expert Determination on issues related to ship design, in addition to providing other technical consultancy to various offshore, marine, and civil engineering activities.Back