 Deborah L. Thurston
Professor
Deborah L. Thurston earned the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984 and 1987, respectively. After
obtaining the B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University
of Minnesota in 1978, she worked for the Minnesota Pollution Control
Agency
for four years. She is Director of the Decision Systems Laboratory
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she conducts
research
in multiobjective engineering design decision making. She is a Professor
of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, and also holds appointments in the Civil
and Environmental Engineering Department, and the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department.
The focus of her research is on developing
new methods for integrating
environmental impacts, production costs, product performance and
quality into concurrent design and manufacturing analysis. She
has published over 80 technical papers. Her research has been funded
by the National
Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, Chrysler,
General
Motors, Ford, Motorola, Hayes-Lemmerz, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Armstrong
World Industries, Prefinish Metals, Nestle, IL Department of Natural
Resources and EPRI.
She received the prestigious Presidential Young
Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation in 1989,
the Xerox Award for
excellence in engineering research in 1992 and 1995, three awards
for excellence
in undergraduate advising, and a 1994 Best Paper of the Year
Award for The Engineering Economist. Professor Thurston has served as
Associate Technical Editor in Design Theory and Methodology for
the Transactions
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers: Journal of Mechanical
Design, as well as Area Editor for The Engineering Economist.
She
was invited by the National Science Foundation to serve on a
study panel to assess the international state of the art in Environmentally
Benign Manufacturing, as well as serve on several workshops to
help
identify significant research directions. The National Academy
of Engineering has invited her to serve on planning committees
for
their Frontiers
in Engineering Symposium. At the University level, Professor
Thurston
has been elected or invited to serve on a large number of advisory,
executive and search committees.
She is a registered professional engineer and a member of ASEE,
ASME, IEEE and IIE. Contact Information
Office: 212 Transportation Building
Mailing Address:
117 Transportation Building MC-238
104 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana IL 61801
Phone: (217) 333-6456
Fax: (217) 244-5705
e-mail: thurston at illinois.edu
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