Chuck Eastman is one of the pioneers of AEC CAD, developing research 3D and early parametric modeling systems in the middle 1970s. He was one of the early developers of solid modeling and what is now called Building Information Modeling and wrote the first research and popular papers on this topic in the 1970s.. He has directed research labs in both computer science and architecture at Carnegie-Mellon University, UCLA and now at Georgia Tech, where he is Director of the Digital Building Lab in the College of Architecture. The Lab has ten industry sponsors and undertakes research advancing practice for architects, contractors, owners and fabricators. It has four projects ongoing currently with various faculty.

Chuck is an IT Advisor for the CIMsteel building modeling project sponsored by the American Institute of Steel Construction. He is a member of the IFC International Technical Advisory Committee and the National Building Standard Scoping and Model Implementation Committees. Eastman has a research  group working with GSA on its BIM initiative dealing with early concept design. He also has a project with the Precast Concrete Institute developing a BIM standard for interoperability for precast, funded by the Charles Pankow Foundation and the PCI. He was awarded the buildingSMART Open Data Award in 2006 for his work on CIS/2. He is co-author of over 100 scholarly papers and seven books, most recently BIM Handbook, 2nd edition, published by Wiley, which has sold over 6000 copies since its release in April 2008.