Prof Gabriele Chiaro

Professor of Geotechnical Engineering

BScCE & MScCE (Italy), PhD (Japan), PGCTT (NZ), JSPS Fellow

MEngNZ, MNZGS, MNZSEE, MASEE, MISSMGE

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Canterbury

Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

Office: Level 4, Civil/Mech Building, Room E439

Tel: +64-3-369-2248 Ext:92248

Email: gabriele.chiaro@canterbury.ac.nz

URL: Gabriele Chiaro UC

Welcome to my website.

I am a Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, specialising in "Geotechnical Engineering for Resilience and Sustainability." My research encompasses various areas, including:

Earthquake geotechnical engineering and related problems
Geo-disaster risk assessment and mitigation
Experimental geotechnics (soil behaviour from very small to large strain levels)
Geoenvironmental engineering and sustainability
Ground improvement techniques for seismic-resilient goetechnical applications
Computational geotechnics (constitutive, DEM and FEM modelling)

I hold BSc (2004) and MSc (2007) degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio in Italy, a PhD in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan (2010), and a PG Certificate in Tertiary Teaching from the University of Canterbury (2020). My academic career spans 19 years, with 5 years spent in Japan, 3 years in Australia, and 11 years in New Zealand.

My research has received sponsorship through various competitive grant awards from various funding agencies, including EQC/NHC, MBIE (Smart Ideas Endeavour Fund), QuakeCoRE, Tyrewise, DEVORA, JSPS, and JST. To date, I have secured over NZ$ 3 million in external research funding, with more than NZ$ 2.2 million of this as the primary investigator/science leader. In 2014, I was awarded the prestigious JSPS Research Fellowship.

I have authored or co-authored over 180 technical publications, and delivered several keynote/special lectures at national and international geotechnical conferences. Some of my accolades include JGS Best Paper Award (2022), IABSE Outstanding Scientific Paper Award (2021), and NZSEE Otto Glogau Award (2020).

I was the Team Leader of the 2016 NZSEE “Learning from Earthquake” Mission in Kumamoto, Japan, and Team Co-Leader of the 2015 JGS/JSCE “Learning from Earthquake” Mission in Nepal. I am currently a member of the ISSMGE TC101 "Laboratory Testing" and the ISSMGE AsRTC1 "Geotechnical Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change-induced Geo-disasters in Asia-Pacific Regions". I am also an elected member of the NZGS Management Committee, and coordinate the "Climate Change and Sustainability" and "Awards" portfolios.