Fernanda Leite

Fernanda Leite is the Associate Dean for Research in the Cockrell School of Engineering and Joe J. King Professor in Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She holds a PhD (Carnegie Mellon University, 2009), M.S. (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 2005), and B.S. (Universidade Federal do Ceará, Brazil, 2002). Her research focuses on Building Information Modeling (BIM), Scan-to-BIM, circular economy in construction, sustainable systems, and visualization technologies. She has led major initiatives like Planet Texas 2050 and chairs ASCE's Computing Division. Leite has advised over 50 graduate students and published extensively in top journals. Awards include the 2019 Daniel W. Halpin Award and CII Outstanding Researcher Award (2018). She teaches courses on BIM, project management, and sustainable systems engineering.

Leadership roles include serving on the National Science Foundation’s SCC-IRG Track 2 and the Georg Nemetschek Institute’s International Scientific Committee. Her funded projects address urban resilience, housing innovation, and decarbonization in construction. Leite Lab explores cutting-edge applications of BIM, AI-driven disaster debris estimation, and circular economy strategies.

Teaching contributions span undergraduate (Project Management, BIM for Capital Projects) and graduate courses (Sustainable Systems, Construction Safety). She has mentored students in diverse areas like construction waste reduction and virtual reality applications. Leite’s work bridges academia and industry, emphasizing collaboration and technology-driven solutions for global challenges.