Ph.D. in Civil Engineering
University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY)
Buffalo, New York, USA
Research for safer, more resilient communities
Resilience at the intersection of people, infrastructure and risk.
Professor Gian Paolo Cimellaro is a US-trained structural and earthquake engineer who develops interdisciplinary methods to understand, predict and reduce disaster impacts across the built environment and critical infrastructure.
Professor of Structural Engineering
Politecnico di Torino · DISEG
ResilienceCore research mission
Multi-hazardSystems perspective
Data-drivenModels and decision tools
US Graduate EducationM.S. and Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo
Academic background
International education in earthquake engineering grounded in US.
M.S. in Earthquake Engineering
University at Buffalo, State University of New York (SUNY)
Buffalo, New York, USA
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering
University of Pavia
DIPMEC
Master in Information Systems, Integration and Auditing
University of Turin
School of Management (SAA), MBA in IT Governance
Degree in Civil Engineering
Sapienza University of Rome
DISG
Research
A systems approach to disaster resilience
From structural response to community recovery, the research program connects rigorous engineering with the realities of interconnected urban systems.
DR
Disaster Resilience
Risk-informed methods to measure, model and improve the resilience and sustainability of communities and critical infrastructure.
EE
Earthquake Engineering
Structural dynamics, seismic risk assessment, shaking-table experimentation and performance-based engineering.
IS
Interdependent Systems
Modeling coupled human, natural and engineered systems, including cascading failures across infrastructure networks.
SC
Structural Control
Passive, semi-active and active vibration-control systems for safer, more adaptive structures.
Selected work
Projects that connect research and real-world impact
Critical infrastructure
Discover project →
Resilient energy distribution networks
Hybrid temporal-network models for assessing vulnerability, cascading failures and recovery in electric-power systems.
Rapid reconnaissance
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EDAM
A mobile workflow for structured post-earthquake damage assessment and field-data collection.
Smart cities
Discover project →
ParkAdvisor
Environmental resilience supported by distributed smart-parking sensors and decision-ready urban data.
Knowledge
Featured publications
A searchable gateway to selected journal papers, books, chapters, conference papers and technical reports.
2025
Journal article · Structural health monitoring
A refined output-only modal identification technique for structural health monitoring of civil infrastructures
Engineering Structures, Vol. 323, Article 119210, 25 pages.
2025
Journal article · Infrastructure resilience
Seismic risk assessment of natural gas networks at the urban scale
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Vol. 126, Article 105606.
2024
Journal article · Critical infrastructure
Modelling infrastructure interdependencies and cascading effects using temporal networks
Resilient Cities and Structures, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 28–42.
2024
Journal article · Progressive collapse
Progressive Collapse Analysis of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida
Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 150, No. 1, Article 04023211, pp. 1–13.
News and updates
From the research group
Siebel Energy Institute Seed Grant Award
The award supported research on improving the reliability and efficiency of electrical-distribution infrastructure using hybrid temporal-network models.
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Research, student and institutional enquiries
For research collaborations, doctoral opportunities, thesis requests, invited lectures or media enquiries, contact the group directly.
Telephone+39 011 090 4801
OfficeDISEG, Politecnico di Torino
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24
10129 Torino, Italy
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24
10129 Torino, Italy
Office hoursWednesday 12:00–13:00 and by appointment