Congratulations to Professor Tommelein on her election to the National Academy of Construction (NAC), a high professional honor for engineers who have made distinguished contributions to the construction industry. NAC members are recognized for their extensive and diverse expertise, proven leadership, and trusted judgement. Professor Tommelein's election recognizes her as an "academician, professor, and researcher with substantial contributions to bring the lean construction philosophy and practice into the construction industry."
Professor Tommelein is a pioneer in the development of artificial intelligence techniques for application to construction engineering and management. She has also made important theoretical contributions in the areas of space planning, discrete event simulation, supply chain management, and mistake proofing. Her leadership on lean construction tools and methods has been extremely important in jumpstarting the adoption of lean principles in a variety of construction projects in the U.S. and worldwide. She is a founding member of the Lean Construction Institute, and the co-founder and director of the Project Production Systems Laboratory at UC Berkeley.
In addition to her NAC election, Professor Tommelein is the recipient of the Lean Pioneer Award from the Lean Construction Institute as well as both the Peurifoy Construction Research Award and the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers. She is a Licensed Civil Engineer in Belgium.