With the publication of the letter of Prof. Masayoshi Nakashima, President of the IAEE, the assignment to Italy of the 18th World Congress in Earthquake Engineering (WCEE), to be held in Milan in 2024, has been made official.
Nakashima underlines the excellent work done in the presentation of the candidacy, to which Eucentre participated together with AIM Group International.
The same web page contains the message of Gian Michele Calvi, Professor at the IUSS of Pavia and Director of Science of Eucentre, who replies to the announcement also on behalf of the Italian National Association of Earthquake Engineering, presided by Franco Braga, and the Italian Seismic Engineering Association, presided by Luca Ferrari at the time of bidding, thanking the IAEE and affirming that Italy is honored to host the WCEE 51 years after the 1973 edition in Rome.
Calvi goes on to state that “At that time, earthquake engineering in Italy was still a niche subject in science and technology, before the interest on the matter was reinvigorated by the catastrophic events in Friuli (1976) and in Irpinia (1980). Since then, a long series of devastating earthquakes followed and the Italian research in the field grew steadily.
The 2024 conference will thus be at the same time a celebration, a world forum and an omen for the progressive reduction of earthquake risk worldwide.
Hopefully, it will also be the first WCEE planned in the post-COVID era, thus reflecting innovative ways of participating and communicating.”
