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Stefano Galelli

Associate Professor

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Stefano Galelli
Stefano Galelli
Graduate Field Affiliations
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Systems Engineering

Biography

Stefano Galelli is an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, where he leads the Critical Infrastructure Systems Lab. His career has spanned across Europe, Asia, and North America. A graduate of Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he earned a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in environmental engineering (2004, 2007) and a Ph.D. in information and communication technology (2011), it was eventually overseas in Singapore where he first established his career. There, he worked as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore (2011-2013), and then later, as a faculty member of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (2013-2023). After more than a decade in Asia, Galelli’s career brought him to North America. In addition to his appointment at Cornell, Galelli held an adjunct research scientist position at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. His research is currently supported by NSF, DoE, USGS, the World Bank, and Schmidt Sciences.

Research Interests

Galelli’s research interests lie on the interactions between critical infrastructure systems and the natural environment. In particular, Galelli is interested in (1) characterizing how hydro-climatic variability cascades across interconnected water-energy infrastructures and (2) providing adaptive, robust, and scalable management solutions that balance reliability, resilience, and sustainability. To reach this goal, his lab advances and combines elements of process-based modelling, climatology, statistical learning, control theory, and optimization.

  • Environmental and Water Resources Systems Engineering
  • Water Systems
  • Energy and the Environment
  • Sustainable Energy Systems
  • Energy Systems
  • Infrastructure Systems
  • Optimization
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Scientific Computing
  • Statistics and Machine Learning

Teaching Interests

Over the past decade, Galelli has taught foundational courses in calculus, linear algebra, statistics, and probability, as well as advanced courses in data analytics and optimization. His teaching portfolio also includes courses on water and energy management. At Cornell, he teaches two senior- and graduate-level classes: Water Resources Management in a Changing World and Artificial Intelligence for Control of Environmental Systems. He also leads the seminar series for the EWRS concentration.

Service Interests

Galelli has been an active member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the European Geosciences Union (EGU), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He served as an Associate Editor (2015–2020) and Section Editor (2020–2023) for the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, and as a Lead Guest Editor for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (2022–2023). Dr. Galelli currently serves as an Associate Editor for Environmental Modelling & Software and AGU’s Earth’s Future, a transdisciplinary Gold Open Access journal. His service has been recognized by multiple awards.

Select Publications

  • Galelli, S., Turner, S.W.D., Pokhrel, Y., Ng, J.Y., Castelletti, A., Bierkens, M., Pianosi, F., Biemans, H. (2025) Advancing the Representation of Human Actions in Large-Scale Hydrological Models: Challenges and Future Research Directions, Water Resources Research, 61(7), e2024WR039486.

  • Koh, R., Galelli, S. (2024) Evaluating Streamflow Forecasts in Hydro-Dominated Power Systems–When and Why They Matter. Water Resources Research, 60, e2023WR035825.

  • Galelli, S., Dang, T.D., Ng, J.Y., Chowdhury, K., Arias, M.E. (2022) Opportunities to curb hydrological alterations via dam re-operation in the Mekong, Nature Sustainability, 5, 1058–1069.

  • Siala, K., Chowdhury, K., Dang, T.D., Galelli, S. (2021) Solar energy and regional coordination as a feasible alternative to large hydropower in Southeast Asia. Nature Communications, 12, 4159.

  • Chowdhury, K., Dang, T.D., Nguyen, H.T.T., Koh, R., Galelli, S. (2021) The Greater Mekong’s climate-water-energy nexus: how ENSO-triggered regional droughts affect power supply and CO2 emissions. Earth’s Future, 9(3), e2020EF001814.

Google Scholar

Select Awards and Honors

  • Early Career Research Excellence Award 2014
  • SUTD Excellence in Research Award 2017
  • Featured and awarded by multiple international journals, including Nature Sustainability 2022
  • Earth’s Future 2021
  • Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 2021, 2020, 2019
  • Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 2017

Education

  • Ph.D. in Information and Communication Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy Feb. 2011
  • M.Sc. in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy Apr. 2007
  • B.Sc. in Environmental and Land Planning Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy Jul. 2004