About Prof. Paulo LOURENÇO
Paulo B. Lourenço is Full Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal since 2006. He received his degree in Civil Engineering at University of Porto, Portugal in 1990 and his PhD in Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands in 1996. He has been the Head of the Institute in Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering since 2007.
He is experienced in the fields of non-destructive testing, advanced experimental and numerical techniques, innovative repair and strengthening techniques, and earthquake engineering. Specialist in structural conservation and forensic engineering, with work on more than one hundred monuments and existing buildings, including 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites. He is also a structural masonry expert, responsible for R&D projects with the clay brick, concrete block and lightweight concrete block masonry and mortar industry. Consultant on innovative masonry structures using confined and reinforced masonry, and on masonry infills.
He has been the leader of the Project Team responsible for the revision of Part 1 of the European code for masonry (EN 1996-1-1). Coordinator of the Advanced MSc on Structural Analysis of Monuments and Historical Constructions (SAHC) since 2007, with alumni from 70 countries and European Heritage / Europa Nostra Award (the most prestigious in cultural heritage in Europe) in 2017. Editor of the International Journal of Architectural Heritage and co-advisor of the Conference Series on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions. Author of the books “Historic Construction and Conservation” and “Finite Element Analysis for Building Assessment”, Routledge (2019 and 2022). Supervised more than 50 PhD theses and coordinated multiple national and international research projects. Awarded an Advanced European Research Council (ERC) Grant of 3.0 M€ to develop an integrated seismic assessment approach for heritage buildings. Coordinator of an innovative training network on sustainable building lime applications via circular economy and biomimetic approaches with 15 PhD students across Europe.
About University of Minho
Created in 1973, the University of Minho is today a Research University focusing on the regional, national and international socioeconomic environment, standing as one of the PT HEIs with more registered patents. UMinho has 31 Research Units from which 87% ranked as Excellent and Very Good, including more than 90% of the total number of researchers; it has about 1200 researchers, with a Postgraduate student/total student ratio of 40% and more than 200 PhDs awarded yearly. The Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities has placed Civil Engineering at UMinho in the top 100 worldwide over the last years.
The ISISE research centre, coordinating the SAHC Masters Course, was created in 2007 involving the Civil Engineering Departments from the Universities of Coimbra and Minho. ISISE has 80 integrated PhD members (half faculty and half postdoctoral collaborators) and more than 250 staff, including PhD students and technical and administrative staff. The Institute is organized into four Research Groups related to Functional Performance (FP), Historical and Masonry Structures (HMS), Structural Composites (SC), and Steel and Mixed Construction Technologies (SMCT). The hosting institutions have modern, well-equipped and complementary laboratory facilities, with a total area of about 5000 m2.
The main objective of the Institute is to increase the structural and functional performance of Civil Engineering Works, from a perspective of advanced technology and innovation, from Materials to Life Cycle Performance. The approach includes aspects such as advances in experimental and numerical techniques, product development and technology transfer to the industry, durability and reliability, recycle, reuse, conservation and rehabilitation, condition assessment, and risk assessment. In short, ISISE aims at promoting innovation and sustainability, with a link to the construction industry and an up to date focus on a swiftly changing world.
