The executive council
is responsible for the daily implementation of strategic directions and policies decided/approved by the council and for establishing and maintaining good governance practices.
EuraSEM’s Executive Committee
Dario Croccolo
President
Prof. Dario Croccolo is Full Professor at the University of Bologna since 2016, he carries out research in the areas of mechanical design, structural analysis, and industrial product design. His research interests are particularly focused on products developed through innovative additive manufacturing technologies, as well as on friction joints, bolted connections, and shaft–hub couplings. His current research activity is centered on the static and fatigue mechanical strength of joints and components made from advanced and innovative materials. He is actively involved in both national and international research projects and collaborates with several Italian and European scientific societies. He serves as Editor of Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science and is the author of more than 300 scientific publications. In 2018, he received the Robert Hooke Award from EURASEM (European Society for Experimental Mechanics), of which he was Vice President from 2022 to 2025. He was appointed Bologna Ambassador 2025 by the Mayor of Bologna and Bologna Welcome. He is the coordinator of Spoke 3 of the ECOSISTER project, within Italy’s PNRR program for the Emilia-Romagna Region. He holds a patent and has served as Chair of the international conferences M2D2019 – Mechanics and Materials in Design and ICEM21 – International Conference on Experimental Mechanics.
Bernhard Pichler
Vice-President
Bernhard Pichler is full professor at the Institute for Mechanics of Materials and Structures and director of the research group on “Structural Analysis and Experimental Mechanics”: Graduation in Civil Engineering at TU Wien (Dipl.-Ing.) 1999, Dr. techn. (Ph.D.) at TU Wien in 2003, 2006-2008 Postdoctoral Fellow at École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris-Tech, France, Habilitation at TU Wien in 2009, Associate Prof. at TU Wien between 2010 and 2020; >85 refereed publications in the field of Civil Engineering, with an impact indicated through a Hirsch-index of h = 26 / 23 according Google Scholar / Scopus; with a total citation number of 2603/1989 (as of December 2022); since 2022 Editor of Cement & Concrete Research; 8 book chapters; 2011-2015 Chair of the Properties of Materials Committee of the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) of ASCE, 2013-2022 Delegate in of the Academic Partners in the Steering Committee of NANOCEM, the Industrial-Academic Nanoscience Research Network for Sustainable Cement and Concrete (www.nanocem.org), since 2014 treasurer of the Austrian Association for Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, 2017-2021 president of the Central European Association for Computational Mechanics, 2018-2020 Chair of the Experimental Analysis and Instrumentation Committee of EMI, ASCE.
Piervincenzo Rizzo
Vice-President
Professor Piervincenzo Rizzo earned his Laurea (M.S. equivalent) in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Palermo, Italy, in 1998. Following his service in the Italian Army Corps of Engineering, he moved to the United States, where he completed both a Master’s (2002) and a Ph.D. (2004) in Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Rizzo joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor in 2006; he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2012 and reached the rank of Full Professor in 2018. His research expertise lies in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM), specializing in methods such as ultrasound, acoustic emission, solitary waves, infrared thermography, electromechanical impedance, and modal analysis. To date, Dr. Rizzo has published 135 peer-reviewed papers, 5 proceedings volumes, 8 book chapters, 4 patents, and nearly 300 conference papers and technical reports. Dr. Rizzo has received several awards. He is first person worldwide to receive both the Achenbach Medal (2012) and the SHM Person of the Year Award (2015), honors selected by the editors of Structural Health Monitoring: An International Journal. His accolades also include the 2016 University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Junior Scholar Award and numerous honors from the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), including one Fellowship Award as student, a Faculty Grant Award, six Fellowship Research Awards as Ph.D. advisor, and two best paper awards. For more information, please visit Dr. Rizzo’s homepage.
Giorgio Olmi
Secretary
Giorgio Olmi (GO) is currently an Associate Professor of Machine Design at the University of Bologna with Scientific Qualification as a Full Professor. He received a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 and a Ph.D. in Mechanics of Materials in 2005. He is responsible for teaching units dealing with experimental mechanics of solids and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). In addition, he is a Tutor and a member of the Research-Didactics Committee of the Collegio Superiore, an institution of excellence of the University of Bologna devoted to high-level and interdisciplinary education. GO’s main research topics are fatigue (experimental testing and predictive methods), Additive Manufacturing, fracture microscopy analyses, strain gauges, NDT, and joining techniques. GO has been member of research assessment committees at his Department and at a national level. Moreover, he is currently acting as Associate/Academic Editor of “Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science” and “Actuators” and has served as Guest Editor of several Special Issues in Journals. He has chaired Sessions and Symposia at previous ICEM Conferences and acted as Vice-Chairman of the latest ICEM21 in Bologna. GO is the author or co-author of over 200 papers published in peer-reviewed International Journals and in the Proceedings of International and National Conferences, including a scientific book on Experimental Stress Analysis for materials and structures. Bibliometric data (based on the SCOPUS database, as of December 2025): Number of indexed papers: 122; Number of papers in Peer-Reviewed International Journals: 75; Number of citations: 1,418; h-index: 19.
Danny Van Hemelrijck
Treasurer
Danny Van Hemelrijck received a M.S in Civil Engineering (1984), a second M.S. in Computer Science (1987) and a Ph.D. in applied Sciences (1992) form the ‘Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)’, Belgium. After a short period as postdoctoral researcher, he was appointed in 1996 professor at the department of Mechanics of Materials and Constructions (MeMC) of the ‘Vrije Universiteit Brussel’, Belgium. His main research interests include the mechanical characterisation of fibre reinforced material systems under complex loading conditions, Thermoelastic Stress Analysis and damage characterisation using different NDT-techniques. He has co-authored over 150 peer reviewed journal papers and over 200 conference papers on topics related to his research interests. He co-organised the conference series on ‘Emerging Technologies in NDT’ and organised the 18th edition of the ‘International Conference of Experimental Mechanics (ICEM18)’ in Brussels, Belgium in 2018. In 2008 he joined the European Society of Experimental Mechanics (EuraSEM) as member of the executive council (permanent secretary) and between July 2018 and July 2022 he acted as president.