Tommelein

Iris Tommelein is a tenured professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a civil engineer-architect degree from Free University, Brussels, a master’s in both civil engineering and computer science and a PhD in construction engineering and management from Stanford University.

She is the co-founder and director of the Project Production Systems Laboratory at UC Berkeley. Iris is a pioneer in the development of artificial intelligence techniques for application to construction engineering and management. She also has 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. In recognition of her work and her stellar career, she has been honored many times.

She 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. Iris is a Licensed Civil Engineer in Belgium.