Fernando Lima

Dr. Fernando Lima is an architect and urbanist with over 18 years of teaching in higher education across the United States, Brazil, and Portugal. His work is rooted in a global perspective that integrates computational design and digital fabrication with a deep commitment to social equity, environmental resilience, and community engagement.

He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Department of Architecture, Assistant Professor of Architecture, and Director of Digital Fabrication at Belmont University’s O’More College of Architecture and Design. His teaching philosophy merges computational design with service-learning initiatives, empowering students to apply their skills in real-world contexts through interdisciplinary collaboration and community partnerships. By bridging academic instruction with purposeful engagement, Dr. Lima fosters innovation, empathy, and civic responsibility, cultivating designers equipped to make a lasting social impact.

His research spans parametric and generative design, optimization, data science, and digital fabrication, with a focus on creating just, resilient, and sustainable cities. From 2020 to 2022, he was a postdoctoral scholar at the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing at Penn State, where he deepened his expertise in algorithmic design and data-informed urban systems. Dr. Lima holds a Ph.D. in Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, including a doctoral exchange at the University of Lisbon. His dissertation received an Honorable Mention in the 2018 Fulbright | CAPES Foundation National Thesis Awards.

Previously, he held leadership roles as Vice Dean and Department Chair at the School of Architecture and Urban Design at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in Brazil, where he was also a tenured professor and the coordinator of the Architecture and Urbanism Research Laboratory (DOMVS / UFJF–CNPq). His international work includes serving on the Executive Committee of SIGraDi (Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics) and collaborating with research groups in Portugal. He is also an active peer reviewer for leading journals in architecture and urban design.