Thornton Tomasetti’s Aine Brazil inducted into National Academy of Engineering

Aine Brazil, vice chairman of Thornton Tomasetti (center), with the Honorable Gordon R. England, NAE Chair (left) and Dr. C. D. Mote Jr., NAE President (right), was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering during a ceremony at NAE’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 30.  Photo credit: Kevin Allen

New York — Thornton Tomasetti Vice Chairman Aine Brazil, P.E., F.SEI, LEED AP, selected for her leadership in the design of innovative buildings and contributions to engineering literacy, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Brazil, along with nearly 100 other new members from around the world, was inducted during a ceremony at the NAE’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 30, 2018.

The NAE is a nonprofit institution that advances the engineering profession and marshals the expertise and insights of eminent engineers to provide independent advice to the federal government on matters involving engineering and technology. Membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice or education. The NAE now has 2,293 peer-elected members and 262 foreign members from business, academia, and government who are among the world’s most accomplished engineers. They provide the leadership and expertise for numerous projects focused on the relationships between engineering, technology and the quality of life.

Brazil joins Thornton Tomasetti Founding Principals Charlie Thornton and Richard Tomasetti, Principal Emeritus Matthys Levy, and Weidlinger Principals Paul Weidlinger, Mario Salvadori, Melvin Baron, Herbert Rothman, and Jeremy Isenberg, who have all achieved the distinction of NAE membership during their careers.

With a career spanning more than 40 years, Brazil is widely recognized for her engineering achievements in the United States and internationally. She has helped shape Manhattan’s skyline, having led structural engineering teams that designed more than three million square feet of high-rise office development in New York City’s Times Square, including the structural design of the 975,000-square-foot Eleven Times Square, the city’s first core-first office tower.

Her portfolio includes such landmark projects as the 54-story Bloomberg Tower, Greenberg Pavilion at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and Via 57 West. Brazil has been actively involved in the development of 30 and 10 Hudson Yards as well as the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport.

Brazil has received numerous professional awards for excellence in the field. She was inducted into the National Academy of Construction and selected honorary member of AIA New York, both in 2017. She also received the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Homer Gage Balcom Award in 2016 and the Ireland International Engineer Award in 2014. Brazil has served as a member of the Mayor’s Commission on adopting the International Building Code and as the first president of the Structural Engineers Association of New York.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from University College, Galway, Ireland and a master’s degree in structural engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.