Vivian Loftness is Professor of Architecture and former Head of the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

She is an internationally-renowned researcher, author and educator focused on environmental design and sustainability, climate and regionalism in architecture, and the integration of advanced building systems for health and productivity. She is a key contributor to the ongoing development of the Intelligent Workplace - a living laboratory of commercial building innovations for performance.

She obtained a Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

She edited Reference Encyclopedia Sustainable Built Environments (Springer 2013) in addition to numerous book chapters and over 35 journal articles.

She serves on the Board of Directors of the Green Building Alliance, Phipps Conservatory and the Ellis School, and served on the Board of Directors of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE).

She has served on eight National Academy of Science panels as well as being a member of the Academy’s Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment, and given three Congressional testimonies on sustainable design. Her work has influenced national policy and building projects, including the Adaptable Workplace Lab at the US General Services Administration and the Laboratory for Cognition at Electricity de France.

She was recognized as an LEED Fellow, Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, and one of 13 Stars of Building Science by the Building Research Establishment in the United Kingdom in 2013.

She presented the summary “Re-materalization: the future of material use in building” at the inaugural Holcim Roundtable held at MIT Endicott House, Boston, MA, USA (2014) and also participated in the 2nd Holcim Roundtable held in Einsiedeln, Switzerland (2015) and the 3rd LafargeHolcim Roundtable held at the Institute for Lightweight Structures & Conceptual Design (ILEK), University of Stuttgart, Germany (2018).

Vivian Loftness was a workshop respondent at the 6th International LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction in Cairo, April 4-6, 2019.