Filippo Giustozzi

Associate Professor Filippo Giustozzi

Associate Professor

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Profile photo of Filippo Giustozzi in a blue suit, facing slightly towards the right and smiling to the camera, against a plain white-grey wall

Contact details

STEM | School of Engineering


Emailfilippo.giustozzi@rmit.edu.au


Phone: +61 39925 2035


Campus: Melbourne City


Programs

More information

Profile photo of Filippo Giustozzi in a blue suit, facing slightly towards the right and smiling to the camera, against a plain white-grey wall

Contact details

STEM | School of Engineering


Emailfilippo.giustozzi@rmit.edu.au


Phone: +61 39925 2035


Campus: Melbourne City


Programs

More information

Experienced leader in road engineering passionate about advancing the Australian infrastructure sector; focused on delivering practical and readily implementable research outcomes.

Overview

Associate Professor Filippo Giustozzi is an expert in road and airport pavement materials. He completed his second Ph.D. at Virginia Tech University (USA) and is the Chair of the Technical Committee on Sustainable and Resilient Pavements at the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in the USA.

He has participated in several major road and airport construction projects since 2008. Dr. Giustozzi collaborates with national and international government bodies, local governments, industry and product stewardship associations to deliver projects on a variety of topics with practical outcomes, mainly on polymer-modified bitumen and recycled materials for road applications.

At RMIT University, he is leading the Intelligent Materials for Road and Airport Pavements research group and is managing the only university-based fully-equipped asphalt and bitumen laboratory in Australia, which currently employs more than 20 researchers with backgrounds spanning from civil engineering, materials science, chemistry to environmental science.

Web

Research

Filippo and his team delive practical research outcomes to rapidly advance the Australian infrastructure sector. This is done by developing nationally-relevant projects on the use of recycled materials in roads.

Over the past years, he has developed the only fully-equipped university-based laboratory in asphalt and bituminous materials in Australia capable of running a variety of tests. This laboratory also encompasses chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental engineering and materials science with a specific focus on sustainability of transport infrastructure.

He and his team have pioneered and developed the first testing protocol for the assessment of microplastics release from road pavements. Filippo is currently leading the national Austroads project APT6305 on Road-grade recycled plastics for sustainable asphalt pavements, funded by the Transport and Infrastructure Council that brings together Commonwealth, State, Territory and New Zealand Ministers for Transport.

Their research outcomes have fostered several new field applications where real roads have been built using innovative and sustainable products. Within his team, they also have expertise in life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting of materials with a clear focus on the decarbonisation of transport infrastructure.

Research keywords

Roads, Airports, Transport infrastructure, Pavements, Asphalt, Bitumen, Recycling, Sustainable pavements, Life cycle assessment, Polymer modified bitumen, Crumb Rubber, Recycled plastics, Rejuvenators, Carbon footprint, Net-zero transport

Research output summary

75

Publications

$4 million+

Projects

7

Awards

Web

Supervisor interest areas

  • Transport infrastructure design and maintenance
  • Recycled materials in infrastructure
  • Life-cycle assessment
  • Sustainability
  • Polymer modified bitumen and asphalt
  • Smart pavement materials
  • Pavement modeling and design
  • Permeable pavements
  • Ageing and weathering of bituminous materials

Supervisor projects

  • Odours and emissions from bitumen and recycled material-modified bitumen
  • Correlation between bitumen and asphalt mixtures properties
  • Hybrid polymers for bitumen modification
  • Crumb rubber modified bitumen and asphalt specifications
  • Bitumen oxidisation mechanisms
  • Asphalt rejuvenation via chemically modified waste cooking oil
  • The release of microplastics from polymer-modified asphalt materials
  • Anti clogging flood-resilient permeable asphalt pavements
  • Enhancement of asphalt using passenger tyres crumb rubber, pre-treatment strategies and future recyclability
  • Waste plastic modified bitumen and asphalt

Feature publications

Recycling waste plastics in roads: A life-cycle assessment study using primary data

Science of The Total Environment, 751, 141842

J Santos, A Pham, P Stasinopoulos, F Giustozzi. (2021).

Recycled plastic as bitumen modifier: The role of recycled linear low-density polyethylene in the modification of physical, chemical and rheological properties of bitumen

Journal of Cleaner Production, 266, 121988

S Nizamuddin, M Jamal, R Gravina, F Giustozzi. (2020).

Waste tyres crumb rubber as a sustainability enhancer for polymer-modified and hybrid polymer-modified bitumen

International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 1-15

IB Joohari, F Giustozzi. (2021).

Key publications by year

Web

Feature projects

Use of road-grade recycled plastics for sustainable asphalt pavements (APT6305)

Lead CI: Filippo Giustozzi, $1.4 mil, 24 months

2021 - 2022

Increasing Recycling Passenger Car Tyres in Crumb Rubber Modified Asphalt

Lead CI: Filippo Giustozzi, $155,000 ; 18 months

2020 - 2021

ARC Research Hub for Transformation of Reclaimed Waste Resources to Engineered Materials and Solutions for a Circular Economy (TREMS)

Co-CI: Filippo Giustozzi, $12 mil, 5 years

2016 - Present

Key projects

  • LDPE and Crumb Rubber in Asphalt
    Sustainability Victoria
  • Self-Sensing Flood Resilient Smart Roads
    DELWP
  • Crumb rubber asphalt binder characterisation and specification for road pavement applications
    TyreStewardship Australia
  • Exploring the possibility to reuse Waste Cooking Oil in asphalt pavements as rejuvenator
    Cookers Oil Systems
  • SPARC - Smart Pavements Australia Research Collaboration hub
    led by Monash University, Australian Research Council
Web

Awards


RMIT University, Executive Dean’s Research Excellence Award - Level D (Associate Professor)

Award date: 2020

Recipients: Filippo Giustozzi

RMIT University, School of Engineering, Teaching Award

Award date: 2019

Recipients: Filippo Giustozzi

RMIT University, Certificate of Excellence in Teaching

Award date: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

Recipients: Filippo Giustozzi

Web

Grants

As per projects

Web

Public and media engagements

  • Guest speaker at Australian Flexible Pavement Association (AFPA) 2021 International Flexible Pavement Symposium
  • Featured on RMIT Twitter
  • Featured on RMIT Europe Twitter 
  • Featured in Geca
  • 2021

    • Mentioned in "Sripath Technologies, Sripath Asia-Pac establish research services agreement with RMIT University", Roads Online,  21 September, 2021 by Tara Hamid

    2020

    Web
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    Acknowledgement of Country

    RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

    aboriginal flag
    torres strait flag

    Acknowledgement of Country

    RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.