Graduated in Architecture, PhD in Engineering, he is Director of Research at CNRS and Director of the MAP unit (Models and Simulations for Architecture and Heritage). Since 2019, he has been the scientific coordinator of the digital construction site for the restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris, bringing together more than 100 scientists, engineers, architects and art historians. Co-chair of the UNESCO international congress (Marseille 2013, Grenada 2015) and coordinator of national and international scientific studies his research activities focus on surveying, geometric modelling and semantic enrichment of digital representations of cultural heritage, as well as on the design and development of multidimensional information systems for knowledge conservation and restoration. Editor of scientific journals in the field, he has received numerous academic awards since 2007, receiving the CNRS Innovation Medal in 2019 and the Targa d'Oro of the UID (Italian Union for Design) in 2021.
The scientists, led by Livio de Luca, are working on the creation of a 'digital twin' of the cathedral. Until now, 3D conversion technology applied to heritage has focused on the representation of buildings, whereas the ambition of this project is "to bring together in a single platform several models describing all the transformations the cathedral has undergone throughout its life" 3D technologies made it possible to digitalise the cathedral in the years before the fire, information that is now very valuable for the reconstruction of the destroyed parts.