2018 Excellence in Education Award Recipient

Dr. Simaan AbouRizk, P.Eng., is a Distinguished University Professor and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Operations Simulation. For more than three decades, Dr. AbouRizk has been committed to enhancing construction engineering and management education in Alberta. He has been instrumental in establishing the University of Alberta’s Hole School of Construction Engineering and expanding it into one of the most well-respected construction engineering and management programs in North America. As an educator, Dr. AbouRizk has been directly involved in the education of hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students, developing and delivering multiple construction engineering and management courses and co-authoring three textbooks.

Dr. AbouRizk has also supervised and mentored countless master’s and doctoral students in computer simulation for construction planning, productivity improvement, constructability review, and risk analysis. Boasting a high-tech simulation lab, Dr. AbouRizk’s graduate program brings students and industry personnel together into interdisciplinary, collaborative teams preparing students to excel in academia and industry. As a testament to the success of his educational model, many of his graduate students have become leaders in the construction industry, with many more being recognized by national and international organizations for their valuable academic contributions. In the hopes that his successes can be replicated at other institutions, Dr. AbouRizk has been invited to speak around the world about how his educational model functions and how similar programs can be developed elsewhere.