Curriculum

• nato a Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto (ME) il 16/02/1965;
• Laurea in Ingegneria Civile con la votazione finale di 110/110 e lode presso il Politecnico di Torino con il Prof. G. Mancini;
• Ufficiale dell’Arma del Genio col grado di sottotenente, servizio di prima nomina presso 51° BTG Genio Pionieri “Simeto” di Palermo;
• Ph.D. in Ingegneria delle Strutture e Ponti presso il Politecnico di Torino con il Prof. G. Mancini;
• Professore Ordinario di Tecnica delle Costruzioni (ICAR09)- Facoltà di Ingegneria presso il Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile dell’Università di Messina;
• Titolare dei corsi di “Tecnica delle Costruzioni”, “Progetto di Strutture e Ponti”, “Diagnostica e Riabilitazione Strutturale” e “Strutture Prefabbricate” presso la stessa Facoltà dal 2005 e relatore in moltissime tesi di Laurea e di Dottorato presso lo stesso Ateneo;
• Visiting Research presso il Laboratorio di Costruzioni della Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de la Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, direttore il Prof. Hugo Corres Peiretti dal 2005;
• Visiting Research presso il Departamento de Ingenierìa de la Costrucciòn della Escuela Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de la Universidad Politecnica de Barcelona, direttore il Prof. Toni Marì Bernart dal 2009;
• Membro effettivo del “Tribunal de Thesis Doctoral” presso la stessa Escuela Superior de la Universidad Politecnica de Madrid nella sessione del Febbraio 2011.
• Membro della Federation International du Beton – FIB con il n. 20354 dal 2004
• Membro della International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering – IABSE  con il n.419996 dal 2003
• Membro della ACHE - Asociación Científico-técnica del Hormigón Estructural – Madrid – España dal 2005
• Socio del C.T.E. - Collegio dei Tecnici della Industrializzazione Edilizia  dal 2014
• Socio dell’ANIDIS – Associazione Nazionale Italiana d’Ingegneria Sismica - dal 2004
• Socio dell’AICAP – Associazione Italiana Cemento Armato e Precompresso - dal 2004
• Membro di diverse commissioni tecniche tra cui:

• Commissione “GT5/8 Diseño de Estructuras de Hormigón Frente a los Efectos de las Deformaciones Impuestas” dell’ACHE” – Spagna
• FIB Commission 2 “Safety and performance concepts” ;
• Commissione ASSOPREM per lo studio delle travi tralicciate miste, tipo REP o SER;

• Autore di oltre centoventi pubblicazioni scientifiche, comunicazioni a congressi e su riviste nazionali ed internazioni, delle quali oltre metà scritte in lingua inglese, su riviste di rilevante interesse per il settore scientifico, tra le quali si ricordano:

Curriculum

Scientific Activity
In 1988 he graduated in Civil Engineering with full marks and honors at Technical University of Turin (tutor Prof. G. Mancini) with a thesis about Safety and Structural Analysis of a Cable Stayed Bridge;
In 1994 he was member of Operative Unity in Technical University of Turin (Chairman Prof. G. Mancini) for National Research MURST 40% "Innovative techniques and design models in reinforced and prestressed concrete"; specific finality of this unity is the External Prestressing and its relative structural problem;
In 1996 he was member of Operational Unity in Turin, related to the Research Contract between CNR and Government Office for study of problems of durability of the bridges with particular respect to the fatigue effects due to the traffic;
In 1997 he achieved the PhD degree in Structural Engineering at Technical University of Turin (tutor Prof. G. Mancini) with a final dissertation about Non-linear behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Structures;
In 1999 he began his research activities in University of Messina, Department of Construction and Technologies Advanced (tutor Prof. G. Muscolino) on seismic design of structures. And in 2000 he was member of Operational Unity in Messina, related to Research Contract "seismic design of reinforced concrete structures provided with protection devices", in collaboration with the University of Palermo and Rome.
In 2001 he was member of Operational Unity in Messina, related to Research Contract "Dynamic identification of degraded structures", within the proposed Project National CNR-Agency 2001 from the title "New technologies of investigation and reparation of degraded structures in prestressed concrete", in collaboration with the Polytechnics of Milan and Turin;
In 2002 he was member of Operational Unity in Messina, related to Research Contract - PRIN 2001" Methodologies for restoring the structural elements in reinforced concrete in the modern architecture to Messina ", national scientific manager Prof. Antonio De Vecchi and local scientific manager Prof. Raffaella Lione.
In 2005, he was a research assistant at University of Messina, Department of Construction and Technologies Advanced.
Since 01/03/2008, he is Assistant Professor in S.S.D. ICAR/09 “Structural Engineering”, at University of Messina, Department of Civil Engineering.
From 2007 to 2018 he was Aggregate Professor of “Structural Design” and “Structural Rehabilitation” in Engineering Faculty of University of Messina.
From 2019 to 2021 he was Associate Professor of “Structural Design” and “Bridge” in Engineering Faculty of University of Messina.
From 2022 to now he is Full Professor of "Structural Design" and "Bridge" in Engineering Faculty of University of Messina.
During all these years, he developed principally his activity of research about:
• the behavior of non-linearly restrained slender bridge piers. A numerical method was developed to perform a geometrically and mechanically non linear analysis of the piers. It also takes into account the evolution up to failure of the behavior of the restraints. By means of computation on a large number of different restraint conditions on a real bridge, it is shown to what extent the restrain effects exerted by the bridge deck may affect the safety factor on the action side of the piers. Elastic-rigid restraints and sliding-rigid restraints are considered; both of them are able to stop after a predetermined  displacement value, becoming infinitely rigid beyond this value;
• the interaction of axial force, bending moment, and shear force (N, M, V) in reinforced concrete. A new model able to compare in a reliable way with the experimental evidence has been proposed. The work generalizes the variable-depth stress-field approach, allowing to consider the effect of longitudinal and transversal reinforcement in the web and to analyze Rectangular, Box and I-shaped cross-sections subjected to M, N, V by interaction domains, which provide a powerful tool for optimizing the disposition of reinforcements and for maximizing the cross-section strength. The obtained N-M-V failure surfaces are in good agreement with the experimental evidences of tests found in literature;
• the interaction of bending moment, and shear force (M, V) in prestressed concrete. The analytical model is the generalization of the previously proposed model for the N-M-V interaction, based on the stress-fields approach, which now includes the effect of prestressing tendons, thus providing a unified approach for reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete elements. The reliability of the model has been validated by comparing its numerical results both to experimental results already analyzed for reinforced concrete beams and to the strength values obtained by means of failure tests performed on thin-webbed prestressed concrete beams, reported in literature;
• the study on fatigue stresses in end zones of bridge stays induced by wind vibrations. The effects induced by the geometric non-linearity of the structure have been taken in account, determining the equations of motion through an original continuous approach by using the Hamilton's principle. The problem has been carried out in the time domain and the cable has been idealized as a bending stiffened cable in large displacements field, reducing the dynamic problem and using the Galerkin approach. Results, obtained for cable stays constituted by material usually employees, have shown, therefore, that a complete analysis, taking into account the effects of structural non-linearity of the cable, allows to get more precise and less onerous results of the fatigue damages, in comparison to those that come out by a normal linear analysis in the frequency domain;
• The evaluation of the safety level in concrete structures in serviceability and for durability. In this first work a probabilistic analysis and a fuzzy-probabilistic analysis of bridge prestressed beam is performed in order to evaluate its behavior in serviceability condition, with particular attention to the crack formation limit state. In particular, shrinkage and creep parameters are considered as stochastic variables, adopting a deterministic value for relaxation, due to the severe quality control applied in production of prestressed steel. The comparison of two approaches has put in evidence the peculiarity of fuzzy-probabilistic method, particularly useful when sensitivity analysis should be performed;
Now his interests in research include principally:
• reliability and safety for reinforced and prestressed concrete structures;
• shear in reinforced concrete members, stress fields and interaction problems related to design procedures;
• bridge design: dynamic behaviour of cable structures subject to wind loads and fatigue problems and optimization and reliability of assembly stages during construction;
• seismic design of reinforced concrete structures provided with protection devices.
Affiliations to International and Domestic Associations
He is member of:
• Federation International du Beton – FIB
• International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering – IABSE 
• ANIDIS – Domestic Italian Association of Seismic Engineering
• AICAP – Italian Association of Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete
• ACHE - Asociación Científico-técnica del Hormigón Estructural
He is an external reviewer of international journal SEI - Structural Engineering International - official journal of IABSE.
He is member of  FIB Commission 2 “Safety and performance concepts”
He is member of Commission “GT5/8 Diseño de Estructuras de Hormigón Frente a los Efectos de Las Deformaciones Impuestas” dell’ACHE – España