The Project Production Institute (PPI) celebrates Technical Committee member Dr. Martin Fischer, who has been appointed to the Kumagai Professorship in the School of Engineering at Stanford. The Kumagai Professorship carries preference for faculty whose academic focus is in civil engineering, materials science, robotics, advanced technologies or areas of management that relate to the future of the construction industry. This professorship was established with an endowed gift from the Kumagai Gumi Company.
Martin joined the Stanford faculty in 1991 and is now Director of the Center for Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE). He is also an affiliate of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and a senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy.
Fischer’s research focuses on the productivity of project teams involved in designing, building and operating facilities. His work advances the theoretical foundations and applications for virtual design and construction.
In 1996, he was named a Top 25 Newsmaker by Engineering News-Record. He received the Best Paper Award from the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research in 2000, and was appointed a Design Futures Council Senior Fellow in 2006 for significant contributions toward the horizontal and efficient spread of power in the construction industry.