Giuseppe Zurlo is an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Galway, Ireland, where he has held permanent faculty roles since 2014. An Italian citizen, he earned his PhD in Structural Engineering from the University of Pisa and was a Marie Curie INdAM Fellow at the École Polytechnique in Paris. His academic standing is highlighted by Italian National Habilitations for Full Professor in both Mathematical Physics and Structural Engineering. A dedicated educator, Dr. Zurlo received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2021. His expertise in nonlinear elasticity and continuum mechanics is recognized internationally through visiting professorships at Sapienza University of Rome (IT), ESPCI Paris (FR), Ben-Gurion University and University of Jerusalem (IS), alongside his roles in major collaborative research grants funded by the NSF (US) and ANR (FR).

My research is focused on the modeling of material behavior at the intersection of Continuum Mechanics with Nonlinear Elasticity, Biology, and Electromagnetism. More specifically, I work on Growth, Morphogenesis, and Patterning in biological materials, as well as the mechanical behavior of Cell Membranes. My work also encompasses the modeling of damage and healing phenomena in Rubber Materials, the theory of Finite Elasticity with a specific focus on the mechanics of thin bodies and their instabilities, and the Electroelasticity of soft actuators and energy harvesters. Recently, my interests have expanded into the mechanics of peatlands and an ambitious project to develop a mechanical theory for role of strain incompatibility in biological materials.

At the University of Galway, my teaching portfolio spans from foundational first-year methods to specialized advanced theory. For first-year students, I have delivered Mathematical Methods (MP191) for Financial Mathematics and Engineering Mechanics (MP120), alongside Engineering Mathematical Methods (MM140) for Enginnering. Second-year modules includes Mechanics 1 (MP236) for Science, focusing on Lagrangian mechanics and variational calculus, and Mathematics and Applied Mathematics II (MA2102) for Engineering, which covers PDEs and Dimensional Analysis. At the senior undergraduate and postgraduate levels, I lead Fluid Mechanics (MP365), Nonlinear Elasticity (MP410), and General Relativity and Cosmology (MP403) for Science. 

During my tenure at Politecnico di Bari, I was responsible for core engineering modules, most notably Solid Mechanics (Scienza delle Costruzioni), covering linear elasticity, rod theory, and plasticity. I also delivered Mechanical Behavior of Materials at the MSc level and taught Rational Mechanics and Mechanics of Structures.

My international postgraduate teaching extends to specialized PhD courses in Nonlinear Elasticity delivered at Università Roma Tre and Sapienza Università di Roma, as well as a high-level course on The Geometry of Growing Bodies for the Scuola di Fisica Matematica di Ravello, at CISM Udine and at Università Federico II Napoli.