Dr. Simon Szabó
Personal data
Date of birth: 1996. November 17., Budapest
I am very passionate about safeguarding and preventive conservation of historic buildings, which are invaluable cultural heritage facing significant economic, social, and cultural risks across Europe and beyond. I began my career in Hungary, contributing to conservation projects and research that sparked my strong interest in the field. After completing my PhD at the University of Minho, specialising in the structural behaviour of historic masonry structures with irregular patterns. Afterwards, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University Federico II, focusing on interpreting earthquake damage in masonry churches using artificial intelligence. These experiences have further strengthened my ability to address real-world challenges in heritage preservation. I am currently an assistant professor at BME, where I continue my long-standing commitment to researching the preservation of heritage structures.
Studies
2021 – 2025 PhD in Civil Engineering from the Universidade do Minho, research project: STAND4HERITAGE, ERC Advanced Grant, Focus: Influence of the Masonry Pattern in the Safety Assessment of Historic Masonry Structures, supervisors: Prof. Paulo B. Lourenço, Dr. Marco F. Funari, link: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/97479
2015 – 2021 Integrated Master’s Degree in Architectural Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Work
2026–Present Assistant Professor (Lecturer), BME Department of Mechanics, Materials and Structures
2024–2025 Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Naples Federico II (Italy). Research Project: AIDaBIM, funded by PNRR under the EU Next Generation EU initiative
2021–2025 PhD Candidate, University of Minho, ISISE
Research projects
2025 – 2026 AIDaBIM – Artificial Intelligence to assess structural/seismic damage to historic heritage in a BIM environment, PRIN-PNRR project funded under Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), supported by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
2022 – 2025 MIT–FCT PhD Studentship (€70,000), reference PRT/BD/154348/2022, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
2021 – 2022 STAND4HERITAGE – New STANDards for seismic assessment of built cultural HERITAGE, European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, Grant Agreement No. 833123.
Grants
2026 MSCA Seal of Excellence – HARMONY project (101280911) “Impact of HARMful environmental conditions ON the structural integrity assessment of historic masonrY”
2021 Special “Excellence” Diploma Thesis: Non-destructive testing of historic masonry elements and its use in planning the expansion of a building.
2017 – 2021 Multiple University/National Student Research Conference Awards:
- Special price (2017, 2020, 2021)
- First place (2018, 2020, 2021)
- Second place (2019)
Languages
- Hungarian – Native
- English – C1
- Portuguese – B1
- Italian – A2
Developed software
Szabó Simon, Marco F. Funari, Paulo B. Lourenço (2025). Wall Wizard: A mason-inspired pattern generator for historic masonry walls (Version 1). Zenodo. 10.5281/zenodo.15036310