Alessandro Toffoli

Alessandro Toffoli is Professor in Ocean Engineering in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, at the University of Melbourne. He earned a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy and a PhD in Civil Engineering from KU Leuven in Belgium, completed between 2002 and 2006. After his PhD, he worked in the shipping industry at Det Norske Veritas in Norway. He then pursued an academic career, serving as Research Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia and Reader in Coastal Engineering at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. In 2016, he joined the University of Melbourne as Associate Professor in Ocean Engineering and was promoted to Professor in January 2023. He holds a Visiting Professor appointment at KU Leuven.

Professor Toffoli’s research specializations encompass ocean and coastal engineering, physical oceanography, and air-sea interactions, with a focus on extreme waves, rogue waves, wave breaking, and wave turbulence. His contributions include laboratory experiments, numerical modeling, and field observations, such as expeditions to the Antarctic marginal ice zone and Southern Ocean to investigate wave dynamics and sea ice interactions. Notable publications include “Extreme waves in random crossing seas: Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations” (2011, Geophysical Research Letters) and “Three-dimensional imaging of waves and floes in the marginal ice zone” (2022, Nature Communications). He has produced 179 peer-reviewed publications, accumulating over 5,000 citations. His work, funded by the Australian Research Council, advances understanding of ocean wave behavior in polar regions and climate change contexts.

Professional Email: alessandro.toffoli@unimelb.edu.au