Franca Trubiano is a registered architect with areas of research in Architectural Theory, Tectonics and Materials. She teaches both design studios and electives in these areas and is one of two faculty members teaching Construction Technology I.

In 2007, she was awarded the College of Architecture Outstanding Teacher Award and in 2005 the ARCC Best Conference Paper Award as well as a Georgia Tech Foundation Grant. In 2004 and 2005 her students were awarded 4 PURA - President's Undergraduate Awards and in 2006, her Master's Thesis students were awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize (shared) in the SGF - IR end of year competition.

Alongside colleagues in the Architecture Program, in 2006 she founded the MS area of study in Building Ecology and Emerging Technologies and the same team was awarded a DOE/NREL Solar Decathlon Grant to design and build a competitive zero-energy house. In 2003-2004, she was the first McMahan Visiting Associate Professor at Clemson University where she developed Graduate Studios on the topic of 'Sectional Thinking and the Surface'. From 1997 to 2003 she was a Studio Instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Fine Arts and taught both Graduate and Undergraduate Studios. While in Philadelphia she also taught Architectural Theory at Drexel University as an Adjunct Assistant Professor.

Recipient of research grants including the Salvatori Research Grant from the University of Pennsylvania, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Grant (1995-1999, Canadian Government), a Fonds aux Chercheurs et Aide â la Recherche (1993-1995, Quebec Government), and a Canada Council Artist B Grant in collaboration with two other architects. She was also a co-recipient of a Graham Foundation Grant for the PhD Symposium - Architecture: Imagining a Common Ground for Theory and Practice (1997) held at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 2007, she was invited by Southern Polytechnic University to participate in their first annual Comprehensive Design Eminence Awards. She has been a visiting design critic at Harvard, Barnard/Columbia, Parsons School of Design, Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia University, McGill University and l' Université de Montreal.

Recent scholarship published in JAE, Journal of Architectural Education, Chora, Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture and the Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture.

Her doctoral dissertation was centered on the texts and drawings of the 18th century architect and etcher, Giovanni Battista Piranesi and entitled, 'Architecture in the Manner of Giovanni Battista Piranesi; Ornamental Excess and the Apotropaic Function of Grotesque Representations in 18th century Architectural Theory.'