Welcome | Galasso Lab

Carmine Galasso | PhD

Professor (Full) of Catastrophe Risk Engineering, Postgraduate Team Leader & Affiliate/Study Abroad Tutor @ UCL

Email: c.galasso@ucl.ac.uk

Welcome to the website for Carmine Galasso's research group!

I am a Professor of Catastrophe Risk Engineering in the University College London (UCL)'s Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE), UK. Before joining UCL, I worked as a Catastrophe Risk Modeler at Applied Insurance Research (AIR) Worldwide, San Francisco, USA, and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Performance-based Earthquake Engineering Laboratory, at the University of California, Irvine, USA. I earned my PhD in Earthquake Risk at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy, in January 2011.

My research focuses on developing and applying probabilistic and statistical methods and tools for catastrophe risk modeling and disaster risk reduction. I investigate risks to building portfolios and infrastructure exposed to multiple natural hazards, including earthquakes, strong wind, and flooding, with particular emphasis on community infrastructure (schools, hospitals, heritage assets) in developing countries.

I co-lead the DE|RISC Lab: Disaster Engineering for ResIlient SoCieties Laboratory at UCL with Dr Gemma Cremen and Dr Roberto Gentile, working at the intersection of civil engineering and other disciplines to facilitate multi-hazard risk- and resilience-informed decision-making for a better tomorrow’s world. Our ultimate goal is to provide society with a sustainable, safer, and more resilient built environment.

Our research is funded by the UK Research and Innovation and its Research Councils, the European Commission, the British Council, the Chinese International Centre for Collaborative Research on Disaster Risk Reduction (ICCR-DRR), the China Scholarship Council (CSC), the (Mexican) Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), the World Bank and its Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), the Motorola Solution Foundation, and the Willis Research Network, among others.

We strive to create a lab that welcomes, supports, values, and includes people of diverse backgrounds, experiences & perspectives!

DE|RISC Lab Vision

DE|RISC Lab Research topics

David Wilkie, CERRA Student Award, Seoul, South Korea, May 2019

DE|RISC Lab Vision

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WHAT'S NEW

March 28, 2023: Carmine Galasso and Leandro Iannacone attended the meeting of the 'Spoke TS1 - Urban And Metropolitan Settlements' of the 'RETURN - multi-Risk sciEnce for resilienT commUnities undeR a changiNg climate' project, in Bolzano, Italy. RETURN is a €110 million extended partnership funded by the Italian PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza) aiming to holistically strengthen multi-hazard disaster risk understanding, modelling, quantification, governance and management – including climate change adaptation – in Italy, with the involvement of key stakeholders and end users. Carmine and Leandro shared their recent experience in multi-hazard risk modelling and ongoing work on scenario development to support risk-informed decision-making in urban areas.
March 21, 2023: Carmine Galasso attended and gave an invited talk on some research highlights of the DE|RISC Lab @ UCL at the 'Embedding geoscience innovation into hazard, risk, and resilience' workshop organized by the University of Oxford and supported through a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) program 'Cross-Disciplinary Research for Discovery Science at Oxford', with contributions also from Reuben College, Oxford, the NATO Science for Peace and Security program, and the UKRI COMET (Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tectonics). The workshop featured a number of presentations across the University of Oxford’s Departments and from various research institutions (Earth Observatory of Singapore, National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan, University of Leeds, University of Washington) and various end users, including Arup, Atkins, Gallagher Re, GeoHazards International, International Atomic Energy Agency, and Willis Towers Watson.
March 17, 2023: Carmine Galasso and Gemma Cremen gave an invited talk at the online seminar ‘Earthquake risk modelling: Recent research advances from France and UK' organised by the UK Young Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics (SECED) - Groupe Jeunes Association Française du Génie Parasismique (AFPS).
March 2, 2023: The Willis Towers Watson (WTW) Research Network has published its annual report with key updates across several emerging risks, weather and climate, flood and water management, earth, people, technology, and organisational resilience projects feeding a better understanding of risk. 'Estimating population displacement following disasters' by Nicole Paul, Carmine Galasso, and Jack Baker (Stanford University) is featured in this year's WTW Research Network review (page 95). Nicole also gave a talk at the 'Artificial Intelligence for Environmental Risks' event organized by the WTW Research Network in partnership with the University of Cambridge’s Artificial Intelligence for the Study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER) research center.
February 10, 2023: Many congratulations to Gabriella Tocchi for receiving the Young Researcher Award (category Disaster Risk Reduction) by the Association for Geophysics “Licio Cernobori” (AGLC) for the paper 'Integrating physical and social vulnerabilities in decision-making for disaster risk reduction' (by G. Tocchi, G. Cremen, C. Galasso, M. Polese), presented at the 41st (Italian) National Conference of the National Group of Solid Earth Geophysics (GNGTS), Bologna, Italy, on February 7-9, 2023. Gabriella received an award certificate and a cash prize during a ceremonial event at the conference. Well done, Gabriella!
December 10, 2022: Carmine Galasso gave an invited (online) talk on 'Dynamic cities, dynamic natural-hazard risk: representing urban changes in risk and resilience modelling and decision making' at the 3rd International Forum of the National Facility for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NFEES) on the Latest Development of Resilient Cities (IFNFEES03), Tianjin University, China, December 10, 2022.