Advisory Board
Biography
CESI SpA Milan and Italian Geotechnical Association - AGI-IGS Section
Born in 1956, he graduated in Civil Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano in 1979. During the 1980–1981 academic year, he attended the Master’s program in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Padua.
From 1981 to 2002, he worked at ENEL’s Hydraulic and Structural Research Centre in Milan. Since 2002, he has been responsible for activities related to geosynthetics and environmental geotechnics within the engineering company CESI SpA, also based in Milan.
He is the author and/or co-author of more than three hundred publications in the fields of geosynthetics engineering, environmental geotechnics, soil reinforcement technologies, dam, reservoir and canal lining systems, controlled landfills, and remediation works for contaminated sites.
Registered with the Italian Board of Engineers since 1980 and with the National Order of Journalists since May 1996 (Publicists Register), he is currently Editor-in-Chief of the “Rivista Italiana di Geotecnica”. Eng. Cazzuffi is also a member of the Editorial Boards of the international scientific journals “Geotextiles and Geomembranes”, “Geosynthetics International”, and “Waste Management”.
From 1989 to 1990, he spent a sabbatical year in the United States and Canada. This period of study and research at several North American institutions enabled him to establish an extensive professional network and laid the foundations for scientific and professional collaborations that are still ongoing today.
In the 1993–1994 academic year, he was appointed Adjunct Professor by the University of Florence for a supplementary course integrated with Geotechnics, Geotechnics II, Foundations, and Hydraulic Structures courses.
From 1994 to 2002, he served as Adjunct Professor of “Geotechnics Applied to Soil Protection” at the University of Trento.
Since 1983, he has also supervised, as co-advisor, several undergraduate and doctoral theses later defended at the Universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Milan, Palermo, Rome Tor Vergata, Turin, and Trento, as well as at the Politecnico di Milano, the Politecnico di Bari, and the Politecnico di Torino.
He coordinates UNI national standardization activities concerning geosynthetics and related products, as well as international standardization activities (ISO TC 221) regarding mechanical testing of geosynthetics and related products. Since January 2012, he has been President at the European level of CEN TC 189, dedicated to application standards and test methods for geosynthetics.
In 2002, he was elected President of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), a position he held until 2006. He then remained on the Society’s International Council for an additional four years (until 2010) as Immediate Past President. In 2014, he was awarded the IGS Honorary Membership, the highest recognition conferred by the International Geosynthetics Society, with the following official citation: “for his long term dedication to compelling progress in both the discipline of geosynthetics engineering and the international society through leadership and tireless effort”.
In 2026, he was re-elected President of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS), for a four-year term running until 2030.
A member of the Presidential Council of the Associazione Geotecnica Italiana (AGI) from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2017 to 2024, he is currently President of the AGI-IGS Section.
He has delivered several keynote lectures at major international conferences on geotechnical engineering and geosynthetics engineering.
Since 2016, he has also been an active member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of Ecomondo, where he serves as coordinator for the sector “Hydrogeological Risks and Disasters Prevention and Management.”
