Kate Simonen, FAIA, SE

Professor

Kathrina (Kate) Simonen is a Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington, founder and board chair of the nonprofit Carbon Leadership Forum and leader of the Life Cycle Lab. Licensed as an architect and structural engineer, she connects significant professional experience in high performance building design and technical expertise in environmental life cycle assessment working to accelerate the transformation of the building sector to radically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to materials (also known as embodied carbon) used in buildings and infrastructure.

She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an honorary fellow of the UK’s Institution of Structural Engineers and was named Engineering News Record Top 25 Newsmaker in 2020 for her impact rallying industry to reduce embodied carbon. Taking an entrepreneurial approach to academic work she helped launch two impactful nonprofits, CLF and Building Transparency; spurred the formation of two embodied carbon commitment programs, SE2050 and MEP 2040; and develops and sustains networks of individuals and organizations working together to harmonize and optimize embodied carbon actions.

The Life Cycle Lab advances life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to provide actionable data for decision makers and evaluates strategies to optimize material decisions at all scales (material, project, region). This interdisciplinary research group focused on conducting the foundational research needed to develop methods to accurately assess and radically reduce the embodied carbon in materials, buildings and infrastructure while optimizing the broader impacts of materials on human, social and ecological health across the full life cycle.