prof. dr. Roko Žarnić univ dipl. inž. grad. is the president of the Earthquake Engineering Society and a retired professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Ljubljana. He was the Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning
From 1974 to 1993 he was employed at the Institute for Research on Materials and Structures (ZRMK) Ljubljana, and from 1993 at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, where in 1994 he founded the Chair of Materials and Structure Testing, which he still heads.
He has particularly devoted himself to research into the seismic resistance of masonry buildings, mostly those that are part of the cultural heritage. He gained experience during the renovation of the Soča region after the first earthquake in 1977 and in Montenegro after the earthquake in 1979. He developed a model for nonlinear analysis of the seismic response of a frame structure with masonry infills, which was the basis for his master's and doctoral theses.
He participated in the preparation of the new generation of Eurocodes for reinforced plastic and glass structures. He is also constantly engaged in research in the field of protection and renovation of cultural heritage, with his work at the level of the European Building Technology Platform, where he led the content area for cultural heritage and helps to direct the funds of the European Commission for research in the field of cultural heritage.
He was also a member of the board of the ZRMK Ljubljana Construction Institute for research and development. He led the Slovenian Building Technology Platform, which he founded in 2004, and at the European level, the content area for cultural heritage within the European Building Technology Platform.
Among other things, he led research in the field of experimentally supported modeling of structures, including wooden structures and structures made of advanced materials, such as reinforced plastics. In 1999, he spent six months as a visiting professor at the University of Boulder in the US state of Colorado as part of the Fulbright program, and in 2006 as a national seconded expert for glass structures at the EU JRC ELSA laboratory in Ispra, Italy.