The award recognises Dr Gao's outstanding and sustained commitment to advancing corrosion awareness, education and international collaboration across industry, academia and the wider engineering profession.
The WCO is an international body dedicated to promoting corrosion awareness, education and best practice worldwide, helping to reduce the significant social, economic and environmental impacts of corrosion.
Dr Gao completed both his MSc and PhD in Materials at Loughborough, where he developed the technical expertise that laid the foundations for a distinguished career in corrosion engineering, materials protection, asset integrity and corrosion management.
Currently serving as President of the Institute of Corrosion, the UK's leading professional body for corrosion science and engineering, Dr Gao has become a prominent advocate for the role of corrosion prevention in improving engineering safety, sustainability, infrastructure resilience and industrial performance.
Announcing the honour, the WCO highlighted Dr Gao's longstanding efforts to raise awareness of corrosion and its impact across multiple sectors. It also recognised his leadership in promoting education, outreach and professional engagement within the global corrosion community.
Since becoming President of ICorr in November 2024, Dr Gao placed communication, education and professional engagement at the centre of his activities. His work has included corrosion awareness presentations, international professional engagement, support for young engineers, and collaboration with organisations including WCO, the European Federation of Corrosion, the Chinese Society for Corrosion and Protection, and Association of Materials Protection and Performance.
A particular focus of his presidency has been strengthening international collaboration across the corrosion community. WCO highlighted the UK-China Corrosion Summit initiative, including the inaugural summit in Manchester in 2025 and the second China-UK Corrosion Summit in Beijing in 2026, as examples of his work to create platforms for international knowledge exchange and cooperation.
On being recognised for his work, Dr Gao said:
“I am truly honoured and deeply humbled to receive the WCO Corrosion Awareness Honour. As a Loughborough Materials graduate, I remain extremely grateful for the education, supervision and professional foundation I received at Loughborough University. My MSc and PhD studies in Materials gave me the technical grounding and confidence to pursue a career in corrosion engineering, materials protection and asset integrity.”
He continued:
“Corrosion has profound implications for safety, infrastructure resilience, sustainability and society. I firmly believe that increasing awareness and understanding of corrosion is essential if we are to prevent avoidable failures, protect our infrastructure and support a more sustainable future. I am particularly pleased that this WCO honour recognises the importance of awareness, education, collaboration and communication.”
In addition to his Loughborough degrees, Dr Gao is an AMPP Certified Corrosion Specialist, Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist, Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and Fellow of the Institute of Corrosion.
The Corrosion Awareness Honour award will be formally presented by WCO President, Prof. En-Hou Han during the plenary session at EUROCORR 2026 in Dublin.
Many congratulations to Dr Gao on his global impact and recognition.