Ruggiero Lovreglio


Ruggiero Lovreglio is a scientist based in Auckland, New Zealand. He is a professor at Massey University and a Rutherford Discovery Fellow for Royal Society Te Apārangi. His research is focused on large-scale and small-scale evacuation dynamics and safety training using emerging technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality.
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Early life and education

Lovreglio lived in Barletta most of his life before moving overseas. He is from a farming family which did not stop him from pursuing his interest in science and technology. He studied high school at Liceo Scientifico Carlo Cafiero, achieving a final grade of 100/100. He studied civil engineering for his bachelor's degree at Polytechnic University of Bari, graduating in 2010 cum laude. He pursued his master's studies in the same university, graduating in 2012 cum laude.
Lovreglio obtained his PhD in Civil Engineering from Scuola Interpolitecnica di Dottorato, Polytechnic University of Bari, Polytechnic University of Milan, Polytechnic University of Turin in 2016. He investigated how people make evacuation decisions while evacuating building fires. He was a Research Fellow from 2016 to 2018 at the University of Auckland and then at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to study human behavior in earthquakes and wildfires.

Career

In 2018, he joined Massey University, where he established the Digital Built Environment Lab, focusing on the use of digital technologies for enhanced safety of built environments. Lovreglio is an professor at Massey University and a Rutherford Discovery Fellow for the Royal Society Te Apārangi. He is an associate editor for Safety Science and Fire Technology. He is a member of the editorial board of Fire Safety Journal and Virtual Reality. Lovreglio has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific works and he has led several research projects related to evacuation and safety training including a Marsden project funded by the Royal Society Te Apārangi. He represents New Zealand in the ISO Fire Safety Engineering working group: ISO/TC92/SC4/WG11. During his career, he has been a guest researcher and lecturer at Tsinghua University, NIST, Lund University, ETH Zurich, University of Canterbury, Polytechnic University of the Marches, Edinburgh Napier University.

Selected awards

Selected works

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