I’m an Associate Professor in in Civil Engineering at the School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, Northumbria University, Newcastle (UK).

My work sits at the meeting point of two things that don’t often share a room: centuries-old building materials, and the very current science of decarbonising construction.

I trained originally as an architect, specialising in the conservation of historic buildings at the University of Genoa (Italy), where my thesis in building archaeology was supervised by Prof. Tiziano Mannoni. That early grounding in how old buildings were actually made (not just how they look) has shaped everything since. I went on to work as a building pathology and archaeology specialist at Genoa’s Institute for the History of Material Culture and at Ipsilon p.s.c.r.l., before completing a PhD in Materials Engineering (2006, University of Genoa) on metakaolin as a hydraulic additive in lime-based materials.

In 2010 I moved to the UK to study carbonation in lime-based materials, completing a second PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of Bath (2014), followed by a postdoctoral position on the EPSRC-funded project Experimentally Verified Atomistic Modelling of Lime in Construction Materials (PI: Dr Richard J. Ball; CI: Prof. Stephen Parker).

I joined Northumbria University in 2016 as a Lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, progressing to Senior Lecturer and then Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering team. At this institution, I served as Unit of Assessment lead for Unit 13 in REF 2021, and became Head of Research for the Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering in 2025.

I’m a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IoM3), a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Fellow of various scientific organisations.

You can find more about my publications and academic profile via my Northumbria University staff page, Google Scholar, or ORCID.