About Engineering in Extreme Environments

Engineering in Extreme Environments

Engineering in Extreme Environments is a comprehensive academic journal hosted by the School of Civil Engineering of Southeast University in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, and published globally by Springer Nature. Its ISSN is 3120-4902. The journal was formally launched at an inaugural signing ceremony on 9 February 2026 at Southeast University's Jiulonghu Campus, where Southeast University and Springer Nature signed their cooperation agreement in front of more than 60 experts in the field. It is devoted to the design, analysis and performance optimisation of engineering systems under extreme physical conditions — from polar regions and the deep sea to deep earth, space and disaster zones.

Readers should note at the outset that Engineering in Extreme Environments is a distinct journal from KeAi's Extreme Environments and Engineering. It differs from that KeAi title in publisher — Springer Nature rather than KeAi — in host institution, and in ISSN, with Engineering in Extreme Environments carrying ISSN 3120-4902. The similarity of names makes the distinction important. Any reference to the Southeast University journal launched in February 2026, with Sun Youhong as Honorary Editor-in-Chief and Guo Tong among its Editors-in-Chief, is a reference to Engineering in Extreme Environments, the Springer Nature journal profiled here, and not to the separate KeAi publication.

Launch at Southeast University

On 9 February 2026, the inaugural signing ceremony for Engineering in Extreme Environments was held at Southeast University's Jiulonghu Campus. During the ceremony, Guo Tong, Dean of the School of Civil Engineering at Southeast University, officially signed the cooperation agreement with Dong Zhiqiao, Senior Publisher at Springer Nature. Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering attending included Sun Youhong, President of Southeast University, Liu Jiaping of Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Ding Lieyun, Yue Qingrui, Li Huajun, Wang Mingyang, and Liu Jiaping of Southeast University, as listed in the university's report of the event.

More than 60 experts in the field witnessed the ceremony. They came from Southeast University, Tsinghua University, Dalian University of Technology, Xiamen University, Tianjin University, the National Antarctic Research and Training Base, the China Polar Research Center, the Advanced Ocean Institute of Southeast University Nantong, and China Railway Construction Engineering Group. That witness list is itself informative: it spans universities, polar research organisations, an ocean institute and a major construction group — exactly the mix of academic, exploratory and engineering-practice communities whose work the journal intends to bring onto a single platform.

A distinct journal: not Extreme Environments and Engineering

Because names in this field are close, this section states the distinction explicitly and in full. Engineering in Extreme Environments (ISSN 3120-4902) is hosted by the School of Civil Engineering of Southeast University and published globally by Springer Nature. Extreme Environments and Engineering is a different journal, associated with KeAi. The two differ in publisher, in host institution and in ISSN. Authors preparing a submission, readers following a citation, and librarians cataloguing holdings should verify the publisher and ISSN before assuming which journal is meant.

The Southeast University journal's identity can be checked against a set of fixed facts: host, the School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing; publisher, Springer Nature; ISSN, 3120-4902; launch, the signing ceremony of 9 February 2026 at Jiulonghu Campus; Honorary Editor-in-Chief, Sun Youhong; and Editors-in-Chief, Guo Tong, Ranjith Pathegama Gamage and Cheng Yufeng. If a source instead points to KeAi as publisher, it is describing the other journal. Keeping the two apart protects both titles and prevents misdirected submissions and miscited articles as the newer journal begins to publish.

Editorial leadership

The journal is honoured to have Sun Youhong serving as Honorary Editor-in-Chief. Sun Youhong is President of Southeast University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The Editors-in-Chief are Guo Tong of Southeast University, Ranjith Pathegama Gamage, Chair Professor at Monash University, and Cheng Yufeng, Professor at the University of Calgary. Guo Tong is also Dean of the host School of Civil Engineering and was the Southeast University signatory at the launch ceremony.

Beyond its editors, the journal gathers internationally renowned scholars from countries and regions including China, the United States, Australia and Canada, forming a high-level, multidisciplinary and international editorial board. That composition matches the journal's subject. Extreme-environment engineering is inherently multidisciplinary — a single project can involve structures, materials, thermal-fluid systems, sensing, communications and life support — and inherently international, since polar, deep-sea, space and offshore research is conducted by teams and stations from many countries. An editorial board drawn from several countries and disciplines is therefore a functional requirement for credible peer review across the journal's full scope, not merely a mark of prestige.

Mission: engineering systems under extreme conditions

Engineering in Extreme Environments is positioned as a comprehensive academic journal focusing on extreme environment engineering, dedicated to advancing the design, analysis and performance optimisation of engineering systems under extreme physical conditions. Its launch report explains the strategic context. Countries around the world are actively expanding into frontier fields such as polar scientific research, deep-sea exploration, deep earth engineering and aerospace engineering, while climate change is exposing more regions to the challenges of extreme environments. From the construction of Antarctic research stations to deep-sea resource development, from high-altitude railway engineering to the operation and maintenance of the International Space Station, extreme environment engineering has become a strategic high ground in global scientific and technological competition.

For China specifically, the journal's establishment aligns with major national strategies in polar research, deep-sea exploration, deep-earth engineering and aerospace engineering. The university's report states that the journal aligns with global development trends and national strategic needs, addresses humanity's common challenges, and will provide a global academic exchange platform for the field. It is expected to promote the sharing of engineering experiences and technological cooperation among countries and to drive breakthroughs in both fundamental theory and engineering technology. The journal's editorial philosophy is stated as Excellence, Innovation, Openness, and Inclusiveness.

Environments covered

The journal focuses on engineering innovations and breakthroughs in extreme environments including the polar regions, the deep sea, deep earth, space, high-altitude areas, deserts, nuclear facilities, offshore platforms, volcanic regions and disaster zones. Each environment imposes a different combination of stresses. Polar work must contend with extreme cold and remote logistics. Deep-sea work must withstand immense pressure and corrosion far from support. Deep earth engineering operates under high stress and temperature underground. Space engineering must function in vacuum and radiation with no possibility of hands-on repair. High-altitude, desert, nuclear, offshore, volcanic and disaster settings each add their own extremes of temperature, load, exposure or urgency.

Treating these settings within one journal is the journal's central editorial idea. For a long time, research results in extreme environment engineering have been dispersed across specialised journals in cold regions, oceanography, geotechnical engineering and aerospace. Engineering in Extreme Environments gathers extreme environment engineering research results on a single platform, fostering high-level academic exchange for global researchers in the field. The stated benefit is integration: promoting the integration of cross-environment knowledge and technology transfer, and advancing systematic innovation in the field. A solution proven for thermal control, sensing or structural integrity in one extreme setting may, with proper scrutiny, inform practice in another — but only if the communities publishing those results can readily find and assess each other's work.

Core subject areas

Within those environments, the journal covers core areas including structural design and integrity under extreme loads; thermal-fluid systems in extreme temperature environments; dynamic propulsion and control systems; material selection and durability; sensing and communication systems; life support engineering; risk assessment; and resilience management. This list, given in the launch report, defines the technical scope for authors. It reaches from the structure itself — how it is designed and whether it remains intact under extreme loads — through the systems that keep it powered, controlled, sensed and habitable, to the assessment of risk and the management of resilience when conditions exceed design assumptions.

Prospective authors can use that list as a practical test of fit. Work on materials that must remain durable where replacement is difficult or impossible, on sensors and communications that must function where ordinary systems fail, on life support where human survival depends on engineering reliability, or on risk and resilience for infrastructure exposed to disasters, all falls squarely within the stated scope, provided it concerns engineering systems under extreme physical conditions. Work without that extreme-conditions element, however strong, belongs in a more general civil, mechanical, ocean or aerospace journal instead.

Article types

The journal accepts original research papers, review articles, short communications and research briefs. Original research papers report new designs, analyses, experiments and field results. Review articles can synthesise a scattered subfield — a particularly valuable function in a discipline whose results have historically been dispersed across cold-regions, oceanography, geotechnical and aerospace journals. Short communications and research briefs allow significant but concise findings, methods or observations from extreme settings, where data may be hard won and time-sensitive, to reach the community promptly.

Because the journal was launched in February 2026, its published backfile at the time of this profile is necessarily at its beginning. Readers and authors should consult Springer Nature and Southeast University's School of Civil Engineering for the journal's current submission arrangements, published articles and any calls for papers, rather than relying on launch reporting alone. What the launch record establishes firmly is the journal's identity, leadership, scope and purpose, as set out in this profile.

Host institution: Southeast University, Nanjing

Southeast University, in Nanjing, is the host institution, through its School of Civil Engineering. The university is referred to as SEU in its English reporting. Its Jiulonghu Campus hosted the launch ceremony, its president serves as Honorary Editor-in-Chief, and its Dean of Civil Engineering, Guo Tong, is both an Editor-in-Chief and the signatory of the Springer Nature cooperation agreement. The Advanced Ocean Institute of Southeast University Nantong was among the organisations represented at the launch, reflecting the host university's own breadth across civil and ocean-related engineering relevant to the journal's scope.

Nanjing, in Jiangsu province, is therefore the journal's home city for directory purposes. Its publishing reach, however, is global by design: published globally by Springer Nature, led jointly by editors in China, Australia and Canada, and served by an international editorial board, the journal is intended as a global academic exchange platform headquartered in Nanjing. Engineers and researchers working on polar stations, deep-sea systems, deep underground works, space systems, high-altitude railways, offshore platforms and disaster-resilient infrastructure — wherever they are based — are its intended authors and readers.

Why a single platform matters

In summary, Engineering in Extreme Environments, ISSN 3120-4902, launched on 9 February 2026 by Southeast University's School of Civil Engineering with Springer Nature, under Honorary Editor-in-Chief Sun Youhong and Editors-in-Chief Guo Tong, Ranjith Pathegama Gamage and Cheng Yufeng, was created to end the dispersal of extreme-environment engineering results across separate specialised literatures. It is distinct from KeAi's Extreme Environments and Engineering in publisher, host and ISSN, and it should always be cited and catalogued as the Southeast University and Springer Nature journal. Guided by the philosophy of Excellence, Innovation, Openness, and Inclusiveness, it invites original research, reviews, short communications and research briefs on engineering systems that must perform where conditions are at their most extreme — and on the shared knowledge that lets engineers learn from one extreme environment to succeed in another.