Building for Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology

Alan Cramb

Alan William Cramb, PhD, is President at Illinois Institute of Technology. On July 12, 2016 he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. Earlier this year he was inducted as a Fellow into the National Academy of Inventors. In 2014 he was elected into the National Academy of Engineering. He is the holder of two patents and the author of over 200 publications. He is the recipient of the AISI Medal in 1985 and 1986 and the Robert Woolston Hunt Award of the Iron and Steel Society (AIST/ISS) in 1987. Cramb is a distinguished member or fellow of AIST, AIME, The American Society for Materials (ASM), The American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Iron and Steel Society of Japan (ISIJ).

John Ronan

John Ronan, FAIA is Founding Principal of John Ronan Architects in Chicago, founded in 1999. He serves as Lead Designer on all projects the office undertakes and is known for his abstract yet sensuous work which explores materiality and atmosphere. John holds a Master of Architecture degree with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. In 1999, he was a winner in the Townhouse Revisited Competition staged by the Graham Foundation, and his firm was the winner of the prestigious Perth Amboy High School Design Competition in 2004, a two-stage international design competition to design a 472,000 square foot high school in New Jersey. In December 2000, he was named as a member of the Design Vanguard by Architectural Record magazine, and in January 2005 he was selected to The Architectural League of New York’s Emerging Voices program. John has lectured widely and his work has been exhibited internationally, including the Art Institute of Chicago and The Architectural League of New York’s Urban Center. His work has been covered extensively by the international design press, and a monograph on his work, entitled Explorations, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. A publication on his Poetry Foundation building by the Center for American Architecture & Design at the University of Texas was published in 2015. His firm has been the recipient of two AIA Institute National Honor Awards—for the Poetry Foundation and The Gary Comer Youth Center, both in Chicago--and was a finalist for the Obama Presidential Center. 

John is currently Professor of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture, where he has taught since 1992. His interests include drawing, writing and fly fishing. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two daughters.