This past September he has been a member of the EERI Reconnaissance Team that traveled to Italy following the earthquake of August 24, 2016. He has a BA and an MSCE from the University of Pavia (Italy) and a PhD from the University of Toronto (Canada). He has extensive experience in the area of advanced experimental and numerical response of reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete structures, with particular emphasis on shear critical structures subjected to monotonic, cyclic and dynamic loads. Before joining the University of Washington as a faculty member in September 2015, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), working on the protection of non-structural elements and structural systems by means of base isolation.