Jorge Vanegas

Vanegas focuses on applying creative, innovative, design, entrepreneurial, and digital thinking in pluridisciplinary, multi-institutional, and international collaborative environments, specifically in (1) the delivery and sustainment of the built environment (i.e., infrastructure, facilities, and housing); and (2) in advancing capital asset delivery and management in architecture, engineering, and construction through integrated strategies, tools, and methods. One example is the idea that he presented in his keynote address to the 38th International Association for Housing Science World Congress and which has been the main driver for his education, research, and service scholarly activities. In this address, he stated that the built environment is the most critical element in any society to ensure its growth, its evolution, and ultimately, its survival. Consequently, the imperative within any community anywhere in the world is to deliver and sustain (1) quality of life of its people; (2) quality of place where its people live – in the Built Environment and in the Natural, Virtual, and Social Environments too; and (3) quality of human endeavors within all. Within this broad context, the delivery and maintenance of infrastructure, facilities, and housing at every socio-economic stratum of a society continues to be a critical need but remains an elusive goal. To address this imperative, Vanegas has been leading the formation of a framework for a modern research ecosystem based on three cornerstones that integrate seamlessly and cohesively: (1) a collaboratory of public/private partnership among academia, industry, governments, and local communities to advance global solutions to meet the need to deliver and sustain high-impact, high-performance, high-quality, and affordable infrastructure, facilities, and housing; (2) a cyberinfrastructure platform through which the partners in the collaboratory leverage advanced distributed computing and communication technologies to interact with each other, and to access shared instruments and data regardless of physical location; and (3) an observatory of basic/applied/actionable data/information/knowledge that continuously tracks and extracts existing and emerging knowledge, research advances, and technological developments that can benefit communities. Vanegas is a tenured Professor in Architecture and holds courtesy appointments as Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and as a Research Professor with the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station of The Texas A&M University System. He served as dean of the College of Architecture for three terms (2008–2021). He has been a technical advisor and a regular contributor in various capacities, to activities of different academic institutions, organizations, and companies in the United States and internationally, and serves on multiple boards for several research and education centers. In recognition of his education, research, and service scholarly accomplishments, and for his professional excellence, Vanegas has received national and international awards, including being inducted into the Pan American Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction. He holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and MS and doctoral degrees in construction engineering and management from Stanford University.