Associate Professor Maurice Guerrieri

Dr Guerrieri is a researcher in the fields of fire performance of geopolymer concrete and performance of full-scale structural tunnel elements under combined structural and fire loading. He is part of the Fire Engineering group within VU Research, ISILC.

Dr Guerrieri research focus is entirely experimental, and his research outputs are concentrated on large scale testing. In 2019, Dr Guerrieri was awarded the Vice Chancellors Award for Engagement with Industry and is Nationally recognized as the leading structural fire tester in Australia. Dr Guerrieri was awarded an ARC LIEF Grant LE30100120 to build a large-scale modular furnace. In collaboration with industry partners, the fire facilities have been expanded to include the ability to conduct full scale structurally loaded fire tests on full scale tunnel linings segments. These tests are identical to the fire tests that are only available in Europe. To date, Dr Guerrieri has been the chief researcher carrying out the fire testing requirements for the Metro Tunnel Project and the Westgate Tunnel Project in Melbourne.

Dr Guerrieri carries out high level collaboration with both National and International parties including John Holland, AECOM, Rail Infrastructure Australia (RIA), Metro Trains Melbourne (MTM), Transurban, Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB) in France, Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) & Efectis in the Netherlands. This has led to high-quality research in the built environment at VU and Dr Guerrieri is an emerging national and international scholar in the field of structural fire testing engineering for tunnel structures. His research strengthens and sustains the National fire safety and structures group at VU; accelerates research outcomes which is delivering impact to new research for the benefit of society and industry. In addition, CI Guerrieri has received significant internal investment ($1.7M) in 2020 to prepare the fire group bid for an ARC Centre of Excellence bid in 5 years’ time.

Dr Guerrieri is also an emerging member of the Planetary Health movement at VU (within the concrete research theme) and is involved with tackling critical global challenges by not only solely understanding narrow disciplinary issues (carbon emissions and recycling), but drawing attention to the global community challengers in a number of different sectors which requires problems to be observed through a multidisciplinary lens point of view. Dr Guerrieri is dedicated to being a leader in research that leads to better health of not only human civilisation but the entire planet in general. Dr Guerrieri is also involved with the Planetary Health Online Community via the Planetary Health Alliance where project ideas are shared to foster new opportunities and collaboration via the Planetary Health Project Bank.