Simaan Abourizk, PhD, PEng, is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Alberta and holds the rank of Professor in Construction Engineering and Management. He also served as the NSERC/Alberta Construction Industry Research Chair (1997–2011) and Canada Research Chair in Operations Simulation (2001–2008). His roles include Executive Board membership at the Construction Research Institute of Canada. Education: Doctor of Philosophy in Construction Engineering and Management from Purdue University (1990), Master of Science and Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honors) from Georgia Institute of Technology (1985 and 1984). Research focuses on advancing simulation technologies for construction and natural resource industries, including: Development of the Simphony simulation environment and COSYE framework Integration of AI, visualization, and scheduling tools (e.g., SmartEst, MTRACK) Optimization of tunneling, modular assembly, and industrial fabrication processes Key awards include the E. Whitman Wright Award (2002), E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2001), and Walter Shanly Award (2001). Current projects emphasize synthetic environments, safety analytics, and data-driven decision support systems in construction. He leads initiatives on risk simulation, resource allocation, and industrial automation.





