Irene Rocchi
Associate Professor
Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering
Nordvej
Building 119 Room 165
2800 Kgs. Lyngby
Danmark
Laboratory testing Soil mechanics Field testing innovation
My core competences are in ground characterisation, both field and laboratory, with an interest in micro-scale characterization. An underlying theme in my work is innovation, development and implementation of research outcomes to engineering practice, which is the platform for addressing the development of new sensing technologies. My overarching research objective has been to understand and explain soil behaviour experimentally across scales, while addressing societal challenges. Key applications have been for water flood protection, ground improvement, and interdisciplinary aspects of soil. Ongoing examples of my work are the project SoIA (Soil is alive) funded by the Carlsberg Foundation through a Semper Ardens excellence grant and the spinout project B-test, which is currently funded by an InnoExplorer grant. About my academic path: After graduating in Geotechnical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin in 2009, I joined Geotechnical Consulting Group in London, where I worked for the Crossrail project. In 2010, I won a PhD scholarship from the Government of Hong Kong and completed my PhD in 2014 under the supervision of Prof. Coop (An experimental Investigation of the Influence of Weathering on Saprolitic Soils from Hong Kong). Afterwards I joined the Geotechnical research group at the DICAM Department and at the Interdepartmental Industrial research of the University of Bologna, where I worked on field monitoring of river embankments. Since joining the Technical University of Denmark as Assistant Professor in 2016, I worked among others on laboratory characterization of Paleogene clays, and was promoted to associate professor in 2020.