Jonathan Broyles

Jonathan Broyles holds a PhD in Architectural Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, where he researched in Dr. Nathan Brown's Building Design Group. Following his graduate studies, Jonathan was a postdoctoral research associate in Dr. Wil Srubar's Living Materials Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder. Jonathan has expertise in several research fields, including the reduction of carbon emissions associated with the built environment, structural engineering, computational design, and architectural acoustics.

Jonathan is passionate about combining his research interests in unique ways. During his graduate studies, Jonathan developed a method to rapidly estimate the embodied carbon emissions of different concrete floor systems under various structural design considerations. The methodology from this work, published in Engineering Structures, was extended through the creation of an open-access web tool for designers to use in early-stage building design. In another research project, Jonathan implemented a multi-objective framework to determine optimal concrete floor geometries that satisfied structural design constraints, minimized concrete material (and corresponding embodied carbon emissions), and maximized sound isolation between floors in a multi-story building. A series of journal articles have been published on this project to highlight the trade-offs between lowering the carbon footprint of concrete structures while satisfying secondary design goals, like building acoustics.

In addition to his graduate and postdoctoral research, Jonathan has collaborated with industry partners and practitioners on several research projects. For example, in a collaboration with Mike Hopper at LERA Consulting Structural Engineers, we demonstrated how existing construction technologies could be combined in a novel way to reduce the embodied carbon emissions of a concrete floor by over 50%. This research project was awarded the CTBUH Innovation Award in 2024, emphasizing the study's significance in building design practice. Jonathan is also active in many professional organizations and academic committees, including the SE 2050 commitment program where he co-authored the inaugural "SE 2050 Commitment Program: 2023 Data Analysis and Findings Report."

As an MCSC Impact Fellow, Jonathan will apply his knowledge of minimizing carbon emissions to help practitioners and stakeholders make more informed low-carbon decisions, while balancing considerations such as cost. Jonathan will also be an affiliate of Dr. Caitlin Mueller's Digital Structures research group to further study new strategies and frameworks to quantify and minimize embodied carbon emissions.