Giuseppe Buscarnera

Giuseppe Buscarnera is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University, serving as the Director of Graduate Studies. He holds affiliations with the Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Graduate Program. His research focuses on geomechanics, particularly the multi-physical processes in geomaterials that impact natural hazards and infrastructure design.

Buscarnera earned his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and a Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino. Before joining Northwestern, he held postdoctoral positions at Politecnico di Milano and collaborated with MIT, the University of Sydney, and others.

His key research interests include constitutive modeling of geomaterials, mechanics of unsaturated soils, chemo-mechanics of porous rocks, material stability theory, fracture mechanics in granular systems, and landslide forecasting. His work integrates theoretical mechanics, constitutive modeling, and computational methods to address societal challenges like natural hazard mitigation and sustainable energy technologies.

Buscarnera has received significant recognition including the NSF CAREER Award (2013) and ALERT PhD Prize (2011). He actively serves as a reviewer for International Journal of Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics and Géotechnique Letters, and is a member of the Italian Geotechnical Association (AGI) and ISSMGE.

In advising, he has mentored over 10 graduate and undergraduate students in projects related to landslide modeling, granular mechanics, and material degradation. His lab employs multi-scale approaches combining continuum thermodynamics, particle-scale models, and DEM analyses. Current research emphasizes particle fragmentation, chemical interactions in porous media, and regional subsidence prediction through multi-scale frameworks.

The Buscarnera Research Group collaborates internationally and uses advanced tools like X-ray tomography and computational simulations to study geoenvironmental processes. Former members now hold academic and industry roles, including Assistant Professor at IIT Kanpur and positions at GEI Consultants.