Rui Pinho

Rui Pinho currently serves as Secretary General of the GEM Foundation. He first graduated in Portugal as a Civil Engineer, and then obtained Masters and Doctoral degrees in Earthquake Engineering from Imperial College London, where he also then worked as a Lecturer. In 2001, Dr Pinho moved from the UK to Italy, joining the Structural Mechanics Department at the University of Pavia, where he still holds a position as Assistant Professor of Structural Design.

Before joining the GEM Foundation, Dr Pinho served as Head of the Seismic Risk Section of the European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering (EUCENTRE, www.eucentre.it), Deputy Coordinator of the LESSLOSS 46-partner European research network (www.lessloss.org), Manager of the Centre for Post-Graduate Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (ROSE School, www.roseschool.it), Deputy Coordinator of the international Erasmus Mundus Masters course in Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (MEEES, www.meees.org), Manager of the IUSS Press (www.iusspress.it), Co-founder and Technical Director of Seismosoft (Software Solutions for Earthquake Engineering, www.seismosoft.com).

Dr Pinho has authored more than 150 publications and supervised more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate research theses and dissertations, mainly on the topics of seismic risk and loss estimation at variable geographical scales, assessment and mitigation of seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete structures, development of advanced analytical tools for analysis of structures subjected to seismic action, validation of innovative earthquake-resistant design/assessment approaches. Dr Pinho is also peer reviewer and/or editorial board member of 20 international scientific journals, has been guest speaker in a number of conferences, workshops and short courses, and is the recipient of a number of awards, including the 2008 EERI Shah’s Prize for Innovation.