Charles H. Thornton, PH.D., P.E.

Founding Principal & Consultant

Dr. Charles H. Thornton is one of the most preeminent structural engineers and educators in the world and served as co-chairman of Thornton Tomasetti to 2004. He has been involved in the design, construction and analysis of billions of dollars worth of projects worldwide, including hospitals, arenas, high-rise buildings, airports, and transportation facilities and special structure projects. Many of these projects have set industry standards for innovative thinking and creativity and have won numerous awards. He has led the structural design of some of the most important and monumental structures, including the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, currently the tallest building in the world, as well the Petronas towers in Malaysia, the second tallest building in the world.

In addition to design projects, Charlie is also a recognized expert in collapse and structural failure analysis. His credits include leading the engineering investigation of the collapse of the Hartford Coliseum Space Truss Roof in Connecticut, and the cooling tower scaffold collapse at Pleasants Power Station, West Virginia. He also participated in the FEMA Building Performance Assessment Team for the investigation of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City.

He is currently Chairman of Charles H. Thornton & Company, LLC, a management and strategic consulting firm and continues as a consultant to Thornton Tomasetti. He is founder of the Architecture, Construction and Engineering (ACE) Mentor Program, a non-profit organization that since 1993 has offered guidance and training in architecture, construction and engineering to more than 40,000 inner city high school students in 106 cities across the United States. ACE has awarded more than $6 million in scholarships to date.

Charlie is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction. In recognition of his founding and cultivation of the ACE Mentor Program, he received the America Society of Civil Engineer’s Hoover Medal, which recognizes engineers as humanitarians, and the Award of Excellence from Engineering News-Record. He has taught structural engineering for many years as visiting and adjunct professor, and held visiting faculty/lecturer positions at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., Princeton University, Manhattan College, Pratt Institute and The Cooper Union. He serves as an advisor to the Thornton Tomasetti, Inc. board of directors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Manhattan College and master’s and Ph. D. degrees from New York University.