Prof Dai graduated with his Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Dalian University of Technology and got his PhD degree in Social Infrastructure Engineering from Hokkaido University, Japan. Before joining The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he had two years of experience as a post-doctoral fellow at Hokkaido University and then worked as a research scientist for two-and-a-half years in the Life Cycle Management Research Center of Coastal Infrastructures, Port and Airport Research Institute, Japan.

Prof Dai is the recipient of several academic awards including the "Best Basic Research Paper Award" from ASCE, Journal of Composites for Construction in 2005, and "Distinguished Young Scholar Award" from the Association of FRP for Construction, China Society of Civil Engineers in 2011, HKIE Structural Excellence R&D Grand Award in 2019. His research theme is “Emerging Materials and Structural Systems (EMSS) for Sustainable Concrete Infrastructure (SCI)”.

​Prof Dai is the contributor of 1 textbook, 2 book chapters and 6 conference proceedings. He has published more than 260 technical papers (including some 110 SCI journal papers) in the above-mentioned research area. He delivered more than 20 keynote/invited talks at international conferences and other 60 technical presentations worldwide. As the principal investigator, he has secured a number of research funds from various agencies such as Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), Hong Kong Innovation Technology Fund (ITF), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Construction Industry Council (CIC), Environmental Conservation Fund (ECF) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The total amount of funding has exceeded HK$30 million.

​Prof Dai contributes actively his service and leadership to wide international and domestic technical communities. He has been serving Asian Concrete Federation (ACF) as Chair of its Technical Board, International Institution of FRP Composites for Construction (IIFC) as its Vice President, ISO/TC71 SC6 as its committee manager, and FRP Application Committee of China Society of Civil Engineering as its Vice Chair. He is also an active technical committee member of Japan Concrete Institute (JCI). He is Fellow of IIFC, HKIE and Hong Kong Concrete Institute (HKCI). Currently, he is an Editor of "Advances in Structural Engineering" , a Vice-Editor-in-Chief of "Journal of Asian Concrete Federation" and an Associate Editor of "Journal of Advanced Concrete Technology" and has served other journals (e.g., ASCE Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, Construction and Building Materials) as a Guest Editor or an Editorial Board Member, and more than 60 international journals as a referee.