Gunnar Lucko, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE received his Doctor of Philosophy in 2003 as a Vecellio Graduate Fellow in the Vecellio Construction Engineering and Management Program of the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech and a Master of Science as a Fulbright Scholar in the same program in 1999. He also holds a five-year diploma in structural and environmental engineering from Hamburg University of Technology in his native Germany. While a graduate student at Virginia Tech, he served as the Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Visitors, provided leadership in the Council of International Student Organizations, played clarinet in the University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and was an active member of the concrete canoe team of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter.

He is currently a tenured Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at Catholic University of America (CUA) and Director of its Construction Engineering and Management Program. His research interests are modeling, analysis, and optimization of project schedules and related vital aspects, e.g. costs and resource use, equipment operations, and engineering education. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed conference and journal papers on these topics.

Lucko focuses on applying singularity functions, which originated in structural engineering, to construction management. Singularity functions enable rigorous algorithms to plan construction progress, measure criticality of activities, and improve financial management. He continues to expand the capabilities of these flexible functions. Additionally, he explores novel analogies from other knowledge areas to solve fundamental questions, e.g. “who should own flexibility in schedules” to reduce the risk of delays. These projects have been supported continuously by grants from the National Science Foundation since 2007.

Lucko’s research accomplishments have been recognized with the prestigious 2013 Daniel W. Halpin Award for Scholarship in Construction by the Construction Institute of ASCE. He has also received the 2011 Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize of ASCE as the primary author of a journal paper on validation methods. The School of Engineering at CUA awarded him the 2013 Charles H. Kaman Award for Research Excellence and a 2010 Burns Junior Faculty Fellowship. Lucko has the ability to teach creatively and effectively to both undergraduate and graduate level students and has been recognized with the 2009 Provost Award for Teaching Excellence in Early Career Faculty and the 2008 Kaman Award for Teaching Excellence.

Lucko is Senior Specialty Editor and active reviewer of the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Past Chair of the Executive Committee of the Construction Research Council, and has been serving on technical committees of several conferences. From 2006 to 2009 he led a funded project by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance and Engineers Without Borders, where undergraduate students applied construction, structural, and seismic expertise to develop low-cost foundation dampers for developing regions. The team traveled to rural El Salvador and successfully implemented their design in a new health clinic building that now serves this community. Since 2005 he shares his passion for construction with high school students in the national ACE (Architecture, Construction, and Engineering) Mentor Program.