Professor of Structural and Solid Mechanics, Politecnico di Milano
Visiting Associate, Caltech, Pasadena CA, USA
Education
• PhD in Mechanics, Universite' Paul Verlaine de Metz, France, 2007
• MS in Civil Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, 1984
Previous professional positions
• 2001 – 2016: Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano.
• 1995 - 2001: Assistant Professor, Politecnico di Milano
• 1989 - 1995: Engineering consultant, Alphard Srl, Milano.
• 1988 – Staff engineer, Rocksoil Spa, Milano.
Professional positions held abroad
• 1996 - 2026: Intermittent Visiting Associate, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA\
• 2012 - 2013: Visiting Professor at Universite’ de Montpellier II, France
• 2008: Chercheur Associe' at Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble.
Committee Member
• 2021-2026 Euromech Solid Prize Committee Chairman
• 2021-2026 Euromech Scientific Advisory Member
• 2016-2021 Euromech Council Member
• 2016-2019 Italian Computational Mechanics Group Coordinator
• 2013-2016 Italian Computational Mechanics Group Member
• International Association of Computational Mechanics General Council Member
Member of the PhD Schools
• 2023—present: Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, Doctoral School of the University of Trento
• 2012—2018: Mathematical Methods and Models for Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
• 2000—2014: Structural Engineering, Seismic and Geotechnical Engineering
• Adviser or co-adviser of 12 PhD students.
Research activity
• Author of 120 articles in international journals, and of 50 other publications. Current h-index 43, about 8,500 citations.
• Editor in Chief of Meccanica Springer, since 2021.
• Associate Editor of: Scientific Reports, Journal of Theoretical Computational and Applied Mechanics, International Journal of Fracture, and others.
• Guest editor of 6 Special Issues (JMPS, MOM…)
• Reviewer of international grants (ERC-STG, ERC-COG, H2020 FET OPEN RIA).
• Reviewer in > 90 scientific journals in mechanics, biomechanics and physics.
Honors and invitations
• Honorary speaker (39 Plenary and Keynote) in international conferences and workshops.
• Invited seminar lecturer at 88 scientific institutions (including Harvard MA, Caltech CA, UCLA CA, UCSD CA, Stanford CA, EPFL Switzerland…).
Research Topics
1. Space and time discretization methods for coupled problems.
2. Biomechanics of soft biological tissues.
3. Mechanical and chemo-mechanical behavior of biocompatible elastomers.
4. Metaconcrete: a new concept for aggregates to enhance the dynamical behavior of concrete.
5. Simulations of the propagation of fracture in thin shells and plates with cohesive approaches.
6. Constitutive models in finite deformations: plasticity and multiscale damage models.
7. Configurational distortions of nematic liquid crystals.
8. Mechanics of non-smooth contact with and without friction.
9. Self-adaptive finite element procedures for the propagation of the fracture.
10. Finite deformation cohesive/interface models.