Rotta Loria Honored with 2025 Leonardo Da Vinci Award

Northwestern Engineering’s Alessandro Rotta Loria has received the 2025 Leonardo Da Vinci Award from the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 

Rotta Loria earned the honor for “cross-disciplinary investigations into the mechanics of geomaterials and their impact on developing civil infrastructure with multifunctional capabilities." Established in 2011, the award recognizes outstanding young investigators early in their careers for promising ground-breaking developments in the field of engineering mechanics and applied sciences as relevant to civil engineering understood in the broadest sense.

Rotta Loria, Louis Berger Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, was presented the award May 29 during the EMI Conference in Anaheim, California.

Rotta Loria directs the Subsurface Opportunities and Innovations Laboratory (SOIL). Centered on the subsurface, his work is dedicated to fostering the renewable energy transition, decarbonizing the construction sector, innovating infrastructure, and conserving the built and natural environments through underground solutions.

In 2023, Rotta Loria gained recognition for a groundbreaking study that connected underground climate change to the movement of ground beneath cities. A 2023 TEDx speaker, he was also honored that year on Crain’s Chicago Business “40 Under 40” list. His work includes developing a method that uses electricity to create a natural cement binding sand grains into solid rock, which is ideal for reinforcing coastlines, and inventing a carbon-negative construction material made from seawater, electricity, and carbon dioxide.

Earlier in May, Rotta Loria received the 2025 Innovative Research Award from the Chicago Council on Science and Technology.