Pietro Milillo

Pietro Milillo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston, with additional appointments as a Guest Scientist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and former roles at NASA JPL, UC Irvine, and Caltech. He holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Basilicata and MS/BS degrees in Physics from the University of Bari.

Research Interests: Focus on synergistic use of remote sensing data and computational analysis for Earth and Cryosphere Science, natural/anthropogenic hazard response, and near real-time disaster monitoring. Key areas include SAR constellations, InSAR techniques, machine learning for geophysics, and infrastructure health assessment.

Publication Trends: Recent work emphasizes AI-driven SAR analysis (2025), Antarctic ice monitoring (2025), infrastructure deformation mapping (2025), and integration of altimetry with SAR for environmental applications (2024).

Scientific Recognition:

• 2021: Italian Full Professor Habilitation in Earth Science Physics
• 2020: Remote Sensing Young Investigator Award
• 2019: ISSNAF Anna Maria Molteni Award
• 2016: NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship

Advising: Mentors PhD students at the University of Houston (2023-2024) and international institutions like the University of Bath (UK) and Politecnico di Torino (Italy).

Institutional Leadership: Coordinated €2MM/year international satellite campaigns for Greenland/Antarctica (2017-2021), contributed to NASA's Surface Deformation observing system design (2019-2020), and chaired IGARSS sessions on remote sensing applications.