Ascolta

EDUCATION

03/2016     PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace, and Materials Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy (PhD Supervisor: Prof. A. Pirrotta, Co-Supervisor: Prof. Pol D. Spanos).

Title: “Structural vibration control through Tuned Liquid Column Dampers: theoretical and experimental analysis”

04/2012     MS in Civil Engineering (110/110 cum laude), University of Palermo, Italy.

03/2010     BS in Civil Engineering (110/110 cum laude), University of Palermo, Italy.

 

CURRENT POSITION

12/2024 – present    Associate Professor, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

 

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

12/2021 – 12/2024   Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

07/2019 – 12/2021   Research Fellow, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

07/2016 – 07/2019   Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

04/2016 – 06/2016   Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Engineering Science, Unit of Applied Mechanics, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

 

VISITING APPOINTMENTS

06/2025                   Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University, New York, USA.

05/2025                   Department of Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA.

05/2024                   Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Columbia University, New York, USA.

05/2024                   Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, USA.

09/2022 – 02/2023   Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, USA (Founded by Fulbright Research Scholar Award).

07/2021                   Institute of Engineering Mechanics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany.

03/2021 – 06/2021   Department of Engineering Science, Unit of Applied Mechanics, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

06/2020 – 09/2020   Department of Engineering Science, Unit of Applied Mechanics, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

02/2020 – 05/2020   Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, USA.

04/2016 – 06/2016   Department of Engineering Science, Unit of Applied Mechanics, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

03/2015 – 06/2015   Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, USA.

01/2014 – 06/2014   Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, Houston, USA.

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

09/2022     Fulbright Research Scholarship, founded by the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission (7500 $), for the project “Rocking and Pounding of Structural and Mechanical Systems: Novel Stochastic Approach” in collaboration with Prof. Pol D. Spanos (Rice University, Houston, USA).

05/2021     Selection in the Editor’s Choice section of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics (ASCE), of the paper “Pirrotta et al., Deterministic and Random Vibration of Linear Systems with Singular Parameter Matrices and Fractional Derivative Terms, 2021, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, 147, 04021031”.

12/2020     Best Paper Award (prize 1000 €), for the manuscript “Di Matteo et al. (2019) Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 134, 106337”, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

02/2020     Winner of the selection as Early Career Editorial Board (ECEB) Member for the ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering.

09/2018     2018 GADeS Award for the best PhD Thesis on the topics of Dynamics and Stability, granted by the Group of Dynamics and Stability (GADeS) of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (AIMETA).

07/2014     Winner of the scholarship for the participation to the “Second International Conference on Vulnerability and Risk Analysis and Management - ASCE ICVRAM 2014”, Liverpool (UK), based on the selected paper “Di Matteo et al., (2014) A Wiener Path Integral technique for non-stationary response determination on nonlinear oscillators with fractional derivatives elements”.

06/2014     Finalist for the “Grunwald-Letnikov Awards: Best Student Papers (theory)” at the “International Conference on Fractional Differentiation and its Applications - ICFDA14”, Catania, Italy.

 

ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

09/2025     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Emerging trends in vibration control and energy harvesting: modeling and analysis of advanced materials and structures at micro and macro scales” in the “ECCOMAS 8th Young Investigators Conference -YIC2025”, Pescara, Italy.

10/2024     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Stochastic Dynamics and Control of Complex Structural Systems” in the “International Symposium on Reliability Engineering and Risk Management -  ISRERM 2024”, Hefei, China.

09/2024     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Stochastic Mechanics and Probability in Engineering” in the “XXVI Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics - AIMETA 2024”, Napoli, Italy.

05/2024     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “New trends in vibration control and energy harvesting: Modeling and analysis of innovative materials and structures at micro- and macro-scale” in the “Engineering Mechanics Institute – EMI 2024”, Chicago, USA.

04/2024     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Advancements in Stochastic Dynamics for Design and Assessment of Resilient and Sustainable Engineering Structures” in the “4th International Conference on Vulnerability and Risk Analysis and Management (ICVRAM2024)”, Shanghai, China.

12/2023     Member of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference “13th International Conference on Structural Dynamics – EURODYN2026”, Hannover, Germany.

11/2023     Member of the Scientific Committee of the International Conference “ECCOMAS 8th Young Investigators Conference - YIC2025”, Pescara, Italy.

08/2023     Member of the Organizing Committee of the International Conference “Engineering Mechanics Institute – EMI 2023 International Conference”, Palermo, Italy.

08/2023     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Structural Monitoring and Identification of Complex Dynamical Systems” in the “Engineering Mechanics Institute – EMI 2023 International Conference”, Palermo, Italy.

09/2022     Member of the Organizing Committee of the National Conference “XXV Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics - AIMETA 2022”, Palermo, Italy.

06/2022     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Numerical methods for stochastic mechanics and dynamical systems” in the “International Conference on Nonlinear Solid Mechanics - ICoNSoM 2022”, Alghero, Italy.

09/2019     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Stochastic Mechanics and Probability in Engineering” in the “XXIV Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics - AIMETA 2019”, Rome, Italy.

06/2019     Co-Organizer, Mini-Symposium “Numerical methods for stochastic mechanics and dynamical systems” in the “International Conference on Nonlinear Solid Mechanics - ICoNSoM 2019”, Rome, Italy.

03/2018     Member of the Organizing Committee, “II Workshop on Recent Advances in Mechanics, Dynamics and Probability Theory – MDP2018”, Palermo, Italy.

06/2016     Member of the Organizing Committee, “International Conference of Stochastic Mechanics – SM16”, Capri, Italy.

06/2012     Member of the Organizing Committee, “International Conference of Stochastic Mechanics – SM12”, Ustica, Italy.

 

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP

10/2024 – present    Member of the Editorial Board, “Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics”, Elsevier.

09/2024 – present    Member of the Editorial Board, “Science Progress”, Sage Publishing.

08/2024 – present    Member of the Editorial Board, “Discover Mechanical Engineering”, Springer.

02/2023 – present    Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Sustainable Urban Mobility, Transport Infrastructures and Services” in the journal “Sustainability”, MDPI.

08/2022 – present    Associate Editor for Earthquake Engineering, “Frontiers in Built Environment”, Frontiers Publishing.

02/2022 – present    Member of the Editorial Board, “ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering”, ASME.

02/2022 – present    Member of the Editorial Board, “ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering”, ASCE.

11/2020 – present    Member of the Topic Advisory Panel, “Applied Sciences”, MDPI.

01/2020 –02/2022    Early Career Editorial Board Member of “ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering”, ASME.

02/2019 – present    Member of the Review Board, “Entropy”, MDPI.

 

SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

2021 – present         Supervisor of 2 Post-Doctoral Fellows, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

2019 – 2022            Co-Supervisor of 1 PhD Student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, USA.

2019 – 2023            Co-Supervisor of 1 PhD Student, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

2020 – present         Supervisor of 3 PhD Students, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

2014 – present         Co-Supervisor of 20 Graduate Students, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

 

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Teaching Activities in National Institutions

2020 – present         Lecturer - “Mechanics of Solids and Structures” (9 ECTS Credits), BS in Electrical Engineering for the E-Mobility, University of Palermo, Italy.

2018 – 2023            Lecturer - “Experimental Dynamics and Monitoring” (6 ECTS Credits), MS in Building Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

2018 – 2020            Lecturer - “Mechanics of Solids and Structures” (9 ECTS Credits), BS in Electrical Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

2016 – to date          Teaching Assistant - “Vibrations” (9 ECTS Credits), MS in Civil Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

 

Teaching Activities in PhD Courses

01/2023-02/2023     Lecturer - “Elements of MATLAB” (2 ECTS Credits), PhD Program in “Advances In Modelling, Health-Monitoring, Infrastructures, Geomatics, Geotechnics, Hazards, Engineering Structures, Transportation - AIM HIGHEST”, University of Palermo, Italy.

06/2017-07/2017     Lecturer - “Elements of MATLAB for Engineering” (3 ECTS Credits), PhD Program in “Civil, Environmental and Material Engineering”, University of Palermo, Italy.

 

Teaching Activities in International Institutions

10/2022                   Guest Lecturer (3 lessons) within the course of “Applied Monte Carlo Analysis” (Lecturer: Prof. P.D. Spanos), Rice University, Houston, USA.

09/2018                   Invited Lecturer - International Summer School “Monitoring the Historic Buildings”, Organized by the Univeristy of Palermo and the Honors Center of Italian Universities H2CU), Palermo, Italy.

Title: “Dynamic test and tools”

09/2018                   Invited Lecturer - International PhD Summer School “New horizons in sustainable transport infrastructure engineering-Research and education”, SMARTI European Training Network (Horizon 2020 - Marie Curie-Skłodowska actions), Palermo, Italy.

Title: “How to Monitor Vibrations: Traditional Tools”

05/2016                   Guest Lecturer (1 lesson) within the course of “Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering” (Lecturer: Prof. C. Adam), University of Innsbruck, Austria.

04/2016-05/2016     Teaching assistant - “Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering” (Lecturer: Prof. C. Adam), University of Innsbruck, Austria.

04/2016                   Invited Lecturer – PhD Course of the Department of Engineering Science, Unit of Applied Mechanics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck (Austria).

                               Title: “Structural vibration control through Tuned Liquid Column Dampers: theoretical and experimental analysis”

 

ADDITIONAL ACCADEMIC OR SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES

PhD Boards

05/2022 – present    Member of the Scientific Board, National Ph.D. program “Defense against natural risks and ecological transition of built environment”, University of Catania, Italy.

08/2022                   Member of the Ph.D Committee, Rice University, Houston, USA.

11/2020 – present    Member of the Scientific Board, PhD Course “Engineering of Structures and Infrastructures”, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy.

 

Review Activities

03/2025                   Reviewer for the recruiting process of the 2025 Fullbright Research Scholarship, The U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission.

01/2025 – present    Member of the 2024 Award Committee of the “Bilal M. Ayyub Research Prize for Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems” of the “ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering”.

2021 – 2022            Member of the 2020 and 2021 “Best Paper Award Committee” of the “ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical Engineering”.

10/2019 – 12/2020   Reviewer for the recruiting process, Horizon 2020 - Marie Curie-Skłodowska actions doctoral program “Dynamics of Complex Continua”, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

2014 – present         Reviewer for over 20 leading International Journals, including: Scientific Reports, Nonlinear Dynamics, Mechanical System and Signal Processing, Journal of Sound and Vibration, ASCE Journal of Engineering Mechanics, International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, International Journal of Mechanical Sciences, Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, Computers and Structures, Applied Mathematical Modelling, Engineering Structures.

Presentations in Conferences and Meetings

09/2025     Invited Speaker at the Workshop of the National Project PRIN2022 in “Stability, multiaxial fatigue and fatigue life prediction in statics and dynamics of innovative structural and material coupled systems”, Udine, Italy, 9-11 September 2025.

06/2025     “Fourth International Nonlinear Dynamics Conference - NODYCON 2025”, Hoboken, USA, 22-25 June 2025.

05/2025     “14th International Conference on Structural Safety & Reliability - ICOSSAR 2025”, Los Angeles, USA, 01-06 June 2025.

05/2025     “Engineering Mechanics Institute – EMI 2025”, Anaheim, USA, 27-30 May 2025.

04/2025     Invited Lecture by Prof. Shengxi Zhou at the Northwestern Polytechnical University, School of Aeronautics, Xi’an, China, 24 April 2025.

09/2024     “XXVI Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, AIMETA 2024”, Napoli, Italy, 2-6 September 2024 (Chair in a session).

08/2024     “26th Conference of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics – ICTAM 2024”, Daegu, Korea, 25-30 August 2024 (Chair in a session).

07/2024     “11th European Nonlinear Dynamics Conference – ENOC2024”, Delft, Netherlands, 22-26 July 2024.

05/2024     “Engineering Mechanics Institute – EMI 2024”, Chicago, USA, 28-31 May (Chair in a session).

04/2024     “4th International Conference on Vulnerability and Risk Analysis and Management (ICVRAM2024)”, Shanghai, China, 25-27 April (Chair in a session).

07/2023     “Twelfth International Conference on Structural Dynamics - EURODYN 2023”, Delft, Netherlands, 2-5 July 2023.

08/2023     “Engineering Mechanics Institute – EMI 2023 International Conference”, Palermo, Italy, 27-30 August (Chair in a session).

06/2023     “Third International Nonlinear Dynamics Conference – NODYCON 2013”, Rome, Italy, 18-22 June 2023.

09/2022     “XXV Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, AIMETA 2022”, Palermo, Italy, 4-8 September 2022.

07/2022     “7th European Conference on Structural Control – EACS 2022”, Warsaw, Poland, 10-13 July 2022.

06/2022     “International Conference on Nonlinear Solid Mechanics – ICoNSoM 2022”, Alghero, Italy, 13-16 June 2022 (Chair in a session).

12/2021     “16th International Conference Dynamical Systems Theory and Applications”, Online, 06-09 December 2021.

07/2021     Invited Speaker at the Workshop “Innovative Mechanical Metamaterials”, Cetara, Italy, 8 July 2021;

09/2019     “XXIV Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, AIMETA 2019”, Rome, Italy, 15-19 September 2019 (Chair in a session).

06/2019     “International Conference on Nonlinear Solid Mechanics – ICoNSoM 2019”, Rome, Italy, 16-19 June 2019 (Chair in a session).

02/2019     “First International Nonlinear Dynamics Conference – NODYCON 2019”, Rome, Italy, 17-20 February 2019.

09/2018     Invited Speaker at the “2018 GADeS Workshop”, Cagliari, Italy, 20-21 September 2018.

07/2018     “Tenth European Structural Mechanics Conference – ESMC2018”, Bologna, Italy, 2-6 July 2018 (Chair in a session).

06/2018     “Eight Conference on Computational Stochastic Mechanics – CSM8”, Paros, Greece, 10-13 June 2018.

03/2018     “2° Workshop on Recent Advances in Mechanics, Dynamics and Probability Theory – MDP2018”, Palermo, Italy, 5-7 March 2018.

09/2017     “Tenth International Conference on Structural Dynamics - EURODYN 2017”, Rome, Italy, 10-13 September 2017.

09/2017     “XXIII Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, AIMETA 2017”, Salerno, Italy, 4-7 September 2017.

08/2017     “Twelfth International Conference on Structural Safety & Reliability - ICOSSAR 2017”, Wien, Austria, 6-10 August 2017 (Chair in a session).

06/2016     “SM16, International Conference of Stochastic Mechanics”, Capri, Italy, 12-15 June 2016.

09/2015     “XXII Conference of the Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, AIMETA 2015”, Genova, Italy, 14-17 September 2015.

05/2015     “Euromech Colloquium-Stability and control of nonlinear vibrating systems”, Sperlonga, Italy, 24-28 May 2015.

07/2014     “Second International Conference on Vulnerability and Risk Analysis and Management - ASCE ICVRAM 2014”, Liverpool, UK, 13-16 July 2014.

06/2014     “International Conference on Fractional Differentiation and its Applications - ICFDA14”, Catania, Italy, 23-25 June 2014.

 

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

2021 – present         Società Italiana di Scienza delle Costruzioni (SISCo)

2019 – present         American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE)

2019 – present         Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI)

2015 – present         European Mechanics Society (EUROMECH)

2015 – present         Italian Association of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (AIMETA)

 

GRANTS AND PROJECTS (Selection since 2021)

05/2023 – present    Principal Investigator of the National Project “TUNDERVIBE - TUNed Dampers Exploitation to Raise VIBration Energy harvesting”, Italian Ministry of University and Research (225890 €).

07/2022 – 07/2024   Principal Investigator of the Project CORI2022 “Introduction to Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)”, University of Palermo, Italy (2000 €).

09/2022 – 02/2023   Fulbright Visiting Research Scholarship, U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission (7500 $).

12/2020 – 12/2022   Principal Investigator of the Project “Line Element-Less Method (LEM) for the solution of recent mathematical problems in engineering”, Department of Engineering, University of Palermo (5000 €).

06/2020 – 09/2022   Participant of the Project “SEArcularMINE - Circular Processing of Seawater Brines from Saltworks for Recovery of Valuable Raw Materials”, HORIZON2020.

07/2019 – 12/2021   Beneficiary of the Project PON AIM “Novel techniques for structural monitoring and development of adequate strategies of mitigation of vibrations and of structural reinforcement of structures belonging to the cultural heritage”, Italian Ministry of University and Research (14656 €).