Gertrude Lempp Kerbis Endowed Chair

The Gertrude Lempp Kerbis Endowed Chair seeks an eminent national or international leader to advance discovery and education at the intersection of architectural structures, materials science, and experimental engineering.

Kerbis Chair

The Gertrude Lempp Kerbis Endowed Chair was created in recognition of Gertrude Kerbis’s contributions as an inventive architectural engineer. In recognition of Kerbis’s leadership as a woman in a male-dominated field, the School of Architecture seeks an individual with demonstrated commitments to expanding opportunities for women and underrepresented minority groups in this important area of research and practice.

Gertrude Kerbis (BSAS ’48) served as director of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1970-74. In 1970, she was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. Kerbis was architect for The Greenhouse residential development, which received AIA Chicago’s Distinguished Building Award in 1976, and she was honored by AIA Chicago in 2008 with its lifetime achievement award. Notable built projects include Mitchell Hall at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Rotunda Building at O’Hare International Airport.

Paul Fast

Paul Fast is founder of Fast + Epp, and international structural engineering firm with offices in Canada, Germany, and the U.S. Fast is one of two current Kerbis Fellows at the School of Architecture.

James Pawlikowski

James Pawlikowski is the Managing Principal of Datum Engineers’ Chicago office, a structural engineering firm with offices in Chicago, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, and also is an Adjunct Clinical Professor in the UIUC Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Pawlikowski, an alum of the School of Architecture, is one of two current Kerbis Fellows.