Alexander C. Schreyer

Bio Sketch

Alexander C. Schreyer is Senior Lecturer II, Interim Department Head of Environmental Conservation (ECO), and Program Director of Building and Construction Technology (BCT) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In his leadership roles, he oversees a large department with responsibilities spanning strategic and academic planning, personnel, facilities, and resource stewardship. As BCT Program Director he has shaped the program’s growth since 2013 through innovative curriculum development, industry partnerships, and a sustained focus on student success.

A key contributor to UMass Amherst’s $52 million John W. Olver Design Building — a landmark mass timber facility integrating research, teaching, and practice across three colleges — Schreyer also established Trimble’s first worldwide Technology Lab on campus, a gifted space advancing digital building and geospatial education.

His expertise bridges structural engineering, wood science, and digital design technologies, with particular depth in mass timber structural systems, building materials and construction methods, and technology applications in architecture, engineering, and construction. He teaches courses in Building Information Modeling (BIM), 3D design, wood properties, and construction materials, and has mentored students from undergraduate advising through graduate supervision.

Schreyer is author or co-author of three major textbooks published by John Wiley & Sons: Architectural Design with SketchUp (3rd ed., 2023), Fundamentals of Residential Construction (5th ed., 2022, with Allen and Thallon), and the recent Mass Timber: Materials, Design, and Construction (2026, with Clouston). He is also the creator of ten open-source SketchUp extensions widely used in AEC professional practice and education. His research centers on digital fabrication and design, structural optimization, and the behavior of wood-based structural systems — with a particular focus on innovative connection systems.

Active in university governance, Schreyer has served on many personnel, campus visioning, and infrastructure committees. He holds an M.A.Sc. in Wood Science from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and a Dipl.-Ing. (B.S. equiv.) in Civil Engineering from Rhein-Main University of Applied Sciences in Germany.