Professor Giuliano Pretti has joined the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering as an assistant professor.
“We wholeheartedly welcome our newest faculty member to the department,” says CivMin Chair Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou. “Students will benefit from the exciting new elements Professor Pretti brings to the department in teaching and research. Join us in offering our newest professor a warm welcome to CivMin.”
Writer Phill Snel spoke with Pretti to learn more about his research direction, passion for teaching, and what attracted him to Toronto. He has relocated from Italy to join the department.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Let me start by first saying that it is a great pleasure and honour to be at the University of Toronto, and I’m very much looking forward to working in such a vibrant and stimulating environment. That said, my name is Giuliano, and I’m originally from Italy. I began my educational journey in my hometown of Brescia, in northern Italy, where I earned both my Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and my Master’s degree in structural engineering. It was during this time that I became passionate about numerical tools and analyses, particularly when applied to geotechnical problems. I’m primarily motivated to design new computational models that help us better understand complex engineering phenomena.
I was fortunate to continue developing these interests during my PhD at Durham University in the UK, where I worked extensively on the Material Point Method (MPM), a specific numerical technique. The MPM method is particularly well-suited to modelling solids undergoing extreme deformations, such as those encountered in landslides or during the installation of driven piles. Later, I continued this work as a postdoctoral researcher still at Durham, and I’m now grateful for the exciting opportunity to carry my research forward here in Toronto.
Could you explain the focus of your research?
My main area of expertise is computational geotechnics, especially when soils subjected to extreme deformations start to deform consistently and behave more like liquids. These topics have a wide range of applications in soil mechanics, since basically all infrastructure is either founded on soil or, in some cases — such as earth dams — entirely made of it, and soil is not a standardized material, which can make it particularly unpredictable.
Much of my recent work has been applied to power cable risk assessment in the offshore wind industry. These cables are typically buried in the seabed and are exposed to hazards such as anchor strikes. Together with the team at Durham, I’ve helped develop tools that support industry decisions on appropriate cable burial depths, accounting for soil conditions and maritime traffic. To do this, we created a physics-based software capable of realistically modelling the anchor embedding process across different types of soil.
Why did you choose U of T?
I believe the University of Toronto embodies everything a leading research university should offer: outstanding people and exceptional infrastructure. Both are essential for producing impactful, forward-looking research. Even though I’m still at the very beginning of my time here, I’ve already found my colleagues to be incredibly welcoming and supportive and I see great potential for meaningful collaborations.
U of T is widely recognized as a global centre of excellence, and I will try my best to contribute to that reputation with my own expertise. I’ve also been impressed by the postgraduate students I’ve met so far — they demonstrate all the qualities needed to succeed. From an infrastructure standpoint, being part of such a large and well-resourced institution opens up tremendous opportunities, and I fully intend to make the most of what U of T has to offer.
What are you most looking forward to in your new position?
I’m particularly eager to further develop my research through collaborations and student supervision. I’m deeply passionate about my work, and I enjoy challenging and being challenged on ideas, discussing them in great detail, and leveraging all the inputs to create new models that can make a contribution.
At its core, engineering is about exploring solutions that haven’t yet been explored and translating them into tangible impact. More broadly, I think I am simply looking forward to doing my job as a researcher and as an advisor.
As a new professor, what one piece of advice would you give to students?
It’s always hard to give general advice, as I believe that anyone has their own path and experience. As a general suggestion, I would circulate back to passion and intrinsic motivation. When you’re driven by something that genuinely resonates with you, something that pushes you to go the extra mile with a bigger purpose in mind, I believe you’re doing more than just studying or working; you’re growing as a human being.
This kind of motivation can move mountains (with appropriate geotechnical caution), and as we move into the future, we will need people equipped to face unexpected challenges with curiosity and resilience.
Finally, is there anything fun, or unusual, about yourself you’d like to share with our CivMin audience?
I played football — or soccer, depending on where you’re from — for 19 years. Through the sport, I learned a great deal about teamwork and the importance of individual contributions within a collective effort. Although I stopped playing some time ago, I still fondly remember the thrill before matches.
With my alma mater’s team in Brescia, we won a gold medal at the Italian National University Championships in 2013. I certainly wasn’t the star player, but I look back with great pleasure on the journey and the shared experience that led to such an unexpected and rewarding outcome.
