Researcher Summary
Giovanni De Francesco, M.Eng., Ph.D., CPEng, is a Post-Doctoral Fellow (Earthquake and Structural) in the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. He received his master’s in civil (structural) engineering (2009) and Ph.D. in structural and geotechnical engineering (2013) degrees from the University of Catania in Italy. As a Visiting Ph.D. student, Dr. De Francesco was also affiliated at the Department of Structural Engineering of the University of California in San Diego (July 2011-December 2012) where he had the privilege to be involved in landmark experimental projects on Bridge Rocking Columns (Charles Lee Powell Laboratory) and Base Isolated Structures (Englekirk Structural Engineering Center).
He continued his career (November 2013-July 2016) as a Chief R&D Structural Engineer, responsible for Research and Development of Innovative Structural Systems for Precast Concrete Structures, at Preesforzados y Construcciones S.A. (PreCon), in Guatemala City, Guatemala. In November 2016, he moved to New Zealand and started working as Project Structural Engineer at New Zealand Consulting Engineers Ltd in Wellington. In March 2019, he got his current position at the University of Canterbury.
His main research expertise is in Performance-based Earthquake Engineering, Structural Dynamics, Passive Supplemental Damping and Seismic Isolation, Structural Control and Health Monitoring, Low-Damage Rocking Systems, Precast Concrete Structures.
