Massimo Fragiacomo has been an adjunct professor of structural engineering at the University of Sassari in Italy since 2000. Prior to that, he worked for almost three years at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and six years at the University of Trieste. He holds a PhD in structural design and protection and a degree in structural engineering from the University of Trieste. He has written some 230 articles, 71 of which have been published in peer-reviewed international journals. His main areas of work are timber construction and earthquake and fire safety.

He has been the principal investigator in several national and international research projects with a total value of over €1 million. He has received several prestigious awards for his research work, such as the Frederick Palmer Prize (2012), awarded by the British Institution of Civil Engineers. He is a member of the Eurocode 5 and Eurocode 8 technical committees and the corresponding Italian partner committees.