Quantitative Archaeoseismology. Structural Health Monitoring of Cultural Heritage Buildings
I am an Assistant Professor at the department of Civil Engineering and Environment at Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay and the Laboratoire de Mécanique Paris-Saclay. My research work is focused on quantitative archaeoseismology, vibration-based model updating and structural health monitoring applied to Cultural Heritage buildings. I am also head of research operation No. 2 within the OMEIR team, "Reliability, Vulnerability and Resilience of structures and infrastructures facing natural hazards and ageing", since January 2026. My work is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach of both historical earthquakes and Cultural Heritage buildings, and results from an inclusive collaboration with great colleagues, outstanding students, and the unfailing support of my mentors.
Postdoctoral research in Roma (2023)
I worked in the ancient masonry research group at the university of Roma Tre led by Pr. Dr. Gianmarco De Felice. I applied a motion magnification technique for the dynamic identification of Cultural Heritage buildings with my colleague Dr. Pietro Meriggi. We also investigated innovative image-processing strategies to extract geometric features from pictures and point clouds of ancient masonry with Mr Raphaël Pelenc (ENS Paris-Saclay), and used Discrete Element models to test retrofitting actions with Mr Félix Albert (ENS Paris-Saclay).
Postdoctoral research at LMPS (2021 - 2023)
I did a previous postdoctoral position in Laboratoire de Mécanique Paris-Saclay LMPS of Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay. Through an intense collaboration with my colleague Dr. Cédric Giry, I developed several modelling approaches to study medieval towers struck by historical earthquakes as part of the ACROSS project led by Maria Lancieri, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
PhD thesis in Geophysics (2017 - 2021)
I did my PhD thesis in geophysics at Laboratoire de Géologie of Ecole Normale Supérieure (LGENS) under the supervision of Dr. Hélène Lyon-Caen (ENS/Laboratoire de Géologie), Dr. Maria Lancieri (IRSN/BERSSIN), Dr. Hélène Dessales (ENS/AOROC) and Julien Clément (IRSN/LMAPS). My research was focused on the study of past earthquakes and historical ground motion through computational analysis combining different approaches: building archaeology, earthquake engineering and seismology, particularly in the Mugello area (Italy, Tuscany).
Earlier research (2014 - 2017)
I started working on past earthquakes in the archaeoseismological group of the University of Cologne under the supervision of Pr. Klaus-Günther Hinzen, applying dynamic identification and finite element modelling to Cultural Heritage structures. In 2016, I joined the RECAP ANR program led by Dr. Hélène Dessales as associate researcher, looking at the impact of the 63 A.D. and 70 A.D. earthquakes which occurred in Pompeii through stratigraphic analysis of archaeological ruins and repairs. I joined IRSN (Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire) in 2017, working at the border between seismology and earthquake engineering in the LMAPS (Laboratoire de Modélisation et d'Analyse de la Performance des Structures) and BERSSIN (Bureau d'évaluation des risques sismiques pour la sûreté des installations). My work was focused on the study of the relationship between ground motions selected from worldwide ground motion databases and the seismic response of specific buildings of the nuclear park.
You can find out more about my research projects by going to the tab Research projects.
