Gonzalo Pita is the director of the master’s in systems engineering program in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering. His research centers on the modeling of natural disaster risk, natural hazards (hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods), impacts of climate change, structural vulnerability, system dynamics, and studies of public policy design and implementation. He is also interested in the structure and uncertainty of catastrophe models, the influence of their outputs on risk management strategies, as well as their historical development.
His experience includes leading research and applied projects at the World Bank as a senior specialist since 2013. His work at the Bank comprises risk assessment and management, risk-based asset management systems, institutional and administrative processes in public policy implementation, and disaster risk financing. As part of his work with the World Bank, Pita has worked on projects in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines.
Pita has taught the Engineering for Professionals courses Natural Disaster Risk Modeling and System Dynamics. He holds a bachelor’s in structural engineering from Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (Cordoba, Argentina), a master’s in seismic engineering from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, a PhD from Florida Institute of Technology, and completed postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins University.
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Engineers develop a new model to improve building integrity ahead of natural disasters