Buscarnera Recognized for Contributions to Geotechnical Engineering

Professor Giuseppe BuscarneraProfessor Giuseppe Buscarnera has been selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to receive the 2017 Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award.  Professor Buscarnera has made outstanding contributions to the modeling of instability and failure in multiphase porous materials.

Professor Buscarnera is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Northwestern.  He received his Ph.D. from the Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy.  His research focuses on the interaction between mechanical processes and the environmental agents able to originate uncontrolled deformations into natural deposits. For this purpose he aims to understand, characterize and simulate the deformation response of the solids that constitute man-made earthen structures, as well as the Earth’s surface and its upper lithosphere. The main emphasis of his research is on the effect of non-mechanical perturbations, such as multi-phase flow, chemical interactions and thermal fluctuations. The problems that he addresses span multiple-length scales, from the microscopic compounds forming soils and rocks, to the natural hillslopes that constitute a landscape and interact with infrastructures. As a result, he  uses a broad set of tools ranging from theoretical mechanics, constitutive modeling and analytical/computational methods. Professor Buscarnera also received the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2014. 

The Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award is presented in recognition of outstanding accomplishments, as evidenced by completed works, reports, or papers, in the field of geotechnical engineering. The award was established to provide professional development opportunities for outstanding young practitioners, researchers, and teachers of geotechnical engineering.

Professor Buscarnera's Profile

ASCE Arthur Casagrande Article

McCormick News Article