Prof. Dr. Claudio Faccenna has been appointed as an adjunct professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. He has been head of the ‘Dynamics of the Lithosphere’ section at the GFZ since 2021 and has been a professor at the Università Roma TRE since 2011. Before joining the GFZ, Faccenna held the Foundation Chair of Structural Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. He conducts research in particular on crustal deformation, subduction mechanisms and volcanism. 

Faccenna uses a variety of techniques and methods, such as numerical geodynamic modelling and the interpretation of seismic lines. He is also active in the field of experimental tectonics: in 1996, he founded a laboratory for this purpose at the Università Roma TRE. 

Faccenna has led numerous national and international research projects and published more than 250 scientific articles. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the ‘Arthur Holmes Union medal’ of the European Geoscience Union (2024), the Humboldt Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2015), the Stephan Muller Medal of the European Geoscience Union (2014), the Prix Viquesnel 2013 Société Géologique de France and the International Galileo Galilei Medal for Geosciences (2010). He has been a member of the American Geophysical Union since 2017 and of the Academia Europaea since 2008.