About

Academic Background and Research

I am a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, which I joined in August 2011. Prior to joining Northwestern, I worked at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for six years. I obtained my Laurea and PhD degrees in structural engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. My teaching experience covers several courses in structural mechanics and mechanics of materials typically offered in civil engineering curricula.

My research expertise spans experimental, computational, and applied mechanics, with particular emphasis on heterogeneous and quasi-brittle infrastructure materials. My work on constitutive modeling of concrete through the Lattice Discrete Particle Model (LDPM), one of the most accurate and reliable approaches for simulating failure in strain-softening materials, is known worldwide. In addition, my work on waterless concrete for Martian construction has received widespread attention in the technical community and the media. Supported by several funding agencies, my research focuses on formulating and validating multiscale and multiphysics computational frameworks for the simulation of large-scale problems. Applications include infrastructure aging and deterioration, structural resilience, and the response of materials and structures to natural and human-made hazards.

Leadership and Service

I am a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Concrete Institute (ACI), and I am active in several technical committees. I have held leadership positions at Northwestern University (MMS Program Coordinator and Director of Graduate Studies), the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute (Board of Directors), ACI Committees 446 and 209 (Chair), IA-ConCreep (President), and IA-FraMCoS (Treasurer). In 2018, I was elected a Fellow of the Engineering Mechanics Institute, and in 2025, I was elected a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute.

From 2021 to 2024, I was on leave from my teaching and service responsibilities at Northwestern University to serve as Program Director for the CMMI ECI program at the National Science Foundation. I subsequently served as a CMMI ECI Expert from March 2024 to February 2025.

Research Translation and Entrepreneurship

In 2020, I founded Cusatis Computational Services (CCS) Inc. to translate fundamental research into engineering practice.