Giulio Di Toro - Biography#

Giulio Di Toro is a Full Professor of Structural Geology at the Department of Geosciences, University of Padua (DG-UNIPD) and a research associate at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV-Rome). He was a Professor of Geology at the University of Manchester (Great Britain) from 2015 to 2017.

In collaboration with geologists, seismologists, physicists, engineers, and young undergraduates, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows, to whom he owes so much, he sought to integrate, including through numerical modeling, observations of natural faults with experimental data to understand the physical and chemical processes active during the seismic cycle and natural and human-induced earthquakes. Scientific results published in about 140 papers include the study and identification of fault lubrication processes during earthquakes, characterization of fault architecture and their evolution during the seismic cycle, etc. Technological achievements include the development and installation of the experimental apparatus SHIVA (at INGV's HP-HT laboratories in Rome), and ROSA-HYDROS (at DG-UNIPD laboratories) dedicated to the study of the seismic cycle, including in the presence of hot and pressurized fluids for applications to geothermal energy, and landslide mechanics.

His research has been funded, for about 5.0M€, by the University of Padua, the European Research Council (Starting Grant USEMS and Consolidator Grant NOFEAR projects), the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN projects), the Italian Department of Civil Defense and the Ca.Ri.Pa.Ro Foundation.

He received the Arne Richter Medal (2008) from the European Geosciences Union and the Tartufari Prize for Geology (2010) from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. He is a member of the Academia Europeae, the Accademia Galileiana and of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. From 2020 to 2024 is has been member of the Scientific Board of INGV and from 2020 to 2023 of the Panel PE10 (Earth Sciences) of the European Research Council. Since April 2024 he has been vice-President of the Italian Geological Society. Before devoting himself to the study of earthquakes, he was a volleyball player and had the honor of playing for the Italian Team in the early 1990s. (July 2024)