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DAVIDE LO PRESTI

LO PRESTI DAVIDE

DAVIDE LO PRESTI

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR (ICAR/04)

Ingegneria

About me

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SHORT BIO: Dr. Lo Presti is Associate Professor at the “Engineering Department” of University of Palermo, where he leads a research group dealing smart solutions for sustainable infrastructure (SMARTIlab http://smartilab.unipa.it).

His background is civil engineering with a focus on transport infrastructure. His research is both applied and fundamental and focuses on developing solutions for engineering sustainability to preserve existing transport infrastructures as well as envisioning the future ones. This is done in constant collaboration with international multi-disciplinary researchers, from both academia and private sector, and with a two-fold approach1) implementing new technologies and circular economy into material science, product development and infrastructure management, while 2) tailoring life cycle analyses-based techniques for assessing the actual sustainability of the proposed solutions.

Since 2010 Dr. Lo Presti has authored and co-authored +100 indexed publications in the field (+2000 citations e h-index=24, source: Scopus, December 2023), He has been actively leading activities within RILEM (International Union of Testing and Research Laboratories for Materials and Structures), within editorial boards of at least 5 international journals: amongst these Road Material and Pavement Design (RMPD), and Rilem Technical Letters (RTL); He held the “Rita Levi Montalcini fellowship” funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research, awarded each year to 21 researchers, working abroad and in any field of science, and offering a tenured-track in any university in Italy. In 2019, Dr. Lo Presti was accepted at University of Palermo after 10 years working at the University of Nottingham alongside Prof. Gordon Airey and Prof. Andrew Collop and with research stays at TU Delft (2012 with Prof. Scarpas), University of Washington (2014 with Prof. Steve Muench) and University of California Davis (2019  with Prof. John Harvey). He has extensive experience in coordinating international research projects: amongst these Dr. Lo Presti has conceived and coordinated two 4M€ international Doctoral Networks: between 2013 and 2017 the “Sustainable Pavement and Railways Initial Training Network” (FP7 SUP&R ITN  – http://superitn.eu) and between 2017 and 2022 the “Sustainable Multifunctional Automated Resilient Transport Infrastructure European Training Network” (H2020 SMARTI ETN – http://smartietn.eu).



VISION: 
I define my area of research as “Sustainable solutions for Smart Transport Infrastructure”. In fact, I believe that engineering has no better choice that investing in its sustainable development embracing innovation and new technologies to support healthy society and respecting the environment. On this basis my vision on research needs is built upon links with industry and private sector to clearly understand research questions and undertaking collaborative research to conceive the transport infrastructures of the future SMARTI: “Sustainable Multi-functional Automated Resilient Transport Infrastructures” and exploiting it through our Research and Teaching group at SMARTIlab UNIPA:





 

CURRICULUM VITAE: Updated and detailed CV is downloadable here


AWARDS

  • EARLY CAREER AWARD (2019) – to “Davide Lo Presti” from the international Society for Maintenance And Rehabilitation of Transport infrastructures (ISMARTI) during the Intrernational Conference on Smarti Cities in Seoul, Korea
  • BEST PROJECT AWARD (2019) – to “BioRePavation” from the Smart Transport Alliance (STA) during the annual STA meeting 2019 in Brussels, BE 
  • BEST PROJECT AWARD (2018) – to “SUP&R ITN” from the Smart Transport Alliance (STA) during the annual STA meeting 2018 in Brussels, BE

 

MY PUBLICATIONS and SOCIAL NETWORKS

If you want see and download my publications (freely available in green open access) and/or have updates on my projects

 

MEDIA PRESENCE:


RESUME Jan2024 (ENG):

  • More than 12 million € in research grants
  • Italian habilitation to work as "Full Professor" in any Italian University (since Nov 2020)
  • next Academic coordinator for the University of Palermo (from 2025/2026) of a 2-years European joint Master programme in Sustainable and Resilient Pavement Engineering together with University of Antwerp (Belgium), University of Minho (Portugal) and Manipal Academy of Higher Education (India), supported by the European Commission through the project POWERCN2050  http://powercn2050.eu 
  • Head of the SMARTIlab UNIPA “laboratory for SMARt solutions for sustainable Transport Infrastructure” at the University of Palermo http://smartilab.unipa.it
  • Holder of the Rita Levi Montalcini” fellowship 2016 at University of PALERMO (IT) – funded by the Ministry of Education to attract back 21 researcher a year from any field of science and leading to a tenure-track
  • Founding member of “BioPaving” international association and active member of other international and national associations such as RILEM, ISMARTI, AAPT, SIIV, AIIT
  • He is Chair of the RILEM TC APS “Alternative Paving materials – Sustainability”(2023 – 2028). Also, within RILEM, Task Group co-leader in three different RILEM Technical Committees: TC-264 RAP (2017-2022), TC 279-WMR (2019-2022), TC PAR TC (2022 – present).
  • Speakers at various events worldwide, recently invited for the 2023Kent Seminar series from the Illinois Center for Transportation at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA. 
  • Deputy Panel Chair of the “Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Transport” journal ICE and editorial board member of Road Material and Pavement Design (RMPD) and Rilem Technical Letters (RTL)
  • Chair/Co-Chair of international conferences such as RILEM 2022 Palermo, including Cluster F annual meeting 2022, in Palermo, Italy and “6th International Symposium on Pavement, Roadway, Bridge Life Cycle Assessment” with Gerardo Flintsch, John Harvey, Imal Al Qadi, Hasan Ozer.
  • Organizer and moderator of stakeholders workshop, amongst these: BIOPAVING1BIOPAVING2PAVEMENTLCM and SMARTI ETN series
  • Secretary for AIIT Sicilia (Associazione Italiana per l’Ingegneria del Traffico e dei Trasporti)
  • Author/Co-author of +100 indexed publications (+80 in journals) full publication list on RESEARCHGATE
  • Module Convener at The University of Palermo within the MsC of “civil Engineering” for “Smart roads, railways and airports” (9 ECTS) and “Sustainable Transport Infrastructure” (6 ECTS)
  • Fond supporter of Innovation in teaching exploited within the governing board of “Progetto Mentore” at the University of Palermo since 2019 and as member of the LEIDEL national doctoral progamme since 2023
  • Nominated member of the Scientific Council of the multidisciplinary university center "UNIPA - Center for Sustainability and Ecological Transition," of the University of Palermo, as co-leader of SDG9.