User Profile

Dr. Tom Lawrence, P.E. and LEED-AP, is a Public Service Associate with the University of Georgia, and has over 25 years of professional experience in engineering and environmentally related fields. Before going back for his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, he spent approximately 20 of those years in progressively more responsible engineering and management positions in industry and consulting. He is Chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee 2.8, “Building Environmental Impact and Sustainability”, and is a member of the committee writing a proposed ASHRAE standard on high-performance green buildings (Standard 189.1P). Dr. Lawrence has presented papers on building energy usage and indoor air quality at conferences in the U.S. and Europe, and papers on sustainable design and energy usage in buildings in journals such as ASHRAE Journal, Solar Today, and Buildings and Environment.  He is an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer on the topic of green buildings and sustainable design, and gives invited presentations all over the world on this subject.  At the University of Georgia, Dr. Lawrence teaches courses in Green Buildings, Building Environmental Control (HVAC), Industrial Ventilation, Residential Building Design, Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics, and in these courses he works to bring in sustainable design concepts practices. As part of the Engineering Outreach program, he is helping to coordinate building energy reduction activities within the state university system. Dr. Lawrence is also a consultant for Commissioning and Green Building Solutions in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He is an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, serving on the Board of Directors for the Athens, Georgia chapter and president for the 2008-2010 period, while working to introduce sustainable design practices in the houses built there.

Dr. Lawrence has a B.S. with Highest Distinction honors in Environmental Science from Purdue University (1978), a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University (1982) and a second M.S. degree in Engineering Management from Washington University earned in 1989. He received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in the spring of 2004 researching the impacts of demand-controlled ventilation on energy consumption and indoor air quality in smaller commercial buildings. Dr. Lawrence is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE); the American Society for Engineering Education and is a Phi Beta Kappa.

E-mail: Tom Lawrence