Diego Cerrai

Diego Cerrai is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut (2019) and maintains his office in IPB Room 212-B. Dr. Cerrai serves as Principal or Co-Principal Investigator on multiple research projects funded by prominent organizations including Eversource Energy, Avangrid, Exelon, Dominion Energy, ISO-New England, NYCHA, NASA, NSF, EPA, and the Department of Energy.

His research spans fundamental investigation of precipitation microphysics to applied research in weather impact modeling, grid resilience, renewable energy integration, and energy justice. Dr. Cerrai's work focuses on developing advanced prediction models for power outages, wildfire ignitions, and infrastructure resilience. He has pioneered approaches combining machine learning with physics-based models to address critical challenges in utility infrastructure management during extreme weather events.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward integrating artificial intelligence with traditional atmospheric modeling, particularly for winter storm impacts and power grid vulnerability. His work increasingly incorporates environmental justice considerations, demonstrating commitment to equitable infrastructure resilience. The publications show progression from pure weather modeling toward comprehensive systems approaches that consider both physical infrastructure and social equity dimensions.

Dr. Cerrai actively leads several significant research initiatives including the CAREER-funded APEX-STORM project focused on extreme winter storm preparedness through advanced outage and restoration modeling. His work with NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission involves extensive field campaigns for ground validation of precipitation measurements, particularly during winter weather events in New England.