diff --git a/.cproject b/.cproject
index 248ce11a7..e123eff02 100644
--- a/.cproject
+++ b/.cproject
@@ -610,6 +610,14 @@
 						<useDefaultCommand>true</useDefaultCommand>
 						<runAllBuilders>true</runAllBuilders>
 					</target>
+					<target name="testEliminationTree.run" path="build/inference" targetID="org.eclipse.cdt.build.MakeTargetBuilder">
+						<buildCommand>make</buildCommand>
+						<buildArguments/>
+						<buildTarget>testEliminationTree.run</buildTarget>
+						<stopOnError>true</stopOnError>
+						<useDefaultCommand>true</useDefaultCommand>
+						<runAllBuilders>true</runAllBuilders>
+					</target>
 					<target name="check" path="tests" targetID="org.eclipse.cdt.build.MakeTargetBuilder">
 						<buildCommand>make</buildCommand>
 						<buildTarget>check</buildTarget>
diff --git a/inference/EliminationTree-inl.h b/inference/EliminationTree-inl.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab19b42aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/inference/EliminationTree-inl.h
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+/*
+ * EliminationTree-inl.h
+ * Created on: Feb 4, 2010
+ * @Author: Kai Ni
+ * @Author: Frank Dellaert
+ * @brief: The elimination tree, template bodies
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <boost/foreach.hpp>
+
+#include "EliminationTree.h"
+
+namespace gtsam {
+
+	using namespace std;
+
+	/* ************************************************************************* */
+	template <class FG>
+	EliminationTree<FG>::EliminationTree(FG& fg, const Ordering& ordering) {
+	}
+
+} //namespace gtsam
diff --git a/inference/EliminationTree.h b/inference/EliminationTree.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..43d162a78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/inference/EliminationTree.h
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/*
+ * EliminationTree.h
+ * Created on: Feb 4, 2010
+ * @Author: Kai Ni
+ * @Author: Frank Dellaert
+ * @brief: The elimination tree
+ */
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <set>
+#include "ClusterTree.h"
+
+namespace gtsam {
+
+	/**
+	 * An elimination tree (see Gilbert01bit) associated with a factorg raph and an ordering
+	 * is a cluster-tree where there is one node j for each variable, and the parent of each node
+	 * corresponds to the first variable in the ordering that variable j is connected to.
+	 */
+	template<class FG>
+	class EliminationTree: public ClusterTree<FG> {
+
+	public:
+
+		// In a junction tree each cluster is associated with a clique
+		typedef typename ClusterTree<FG>::Cluster Node;
+		typedef typename Node::shared_ptr sharedNode;
+
+	public:
+		// constructor
+		EliminationTree() {
+		}
+
+		// constructor given a factor graph and the elimination ordering
+		EliminationTree(FG& fg, const Ordering& ordering);
+
+	}; // EliminationTree
+
+} // namespace gtsam
diff --git a/inference/JunctionTree-inl.h b/inference/JunctionTree-inl.h
index 21b8fbaf6..773f8a795 100644
--- a/inference/JunctionTree-inl.h
+++ b/inference/JunctionTree-inl.h
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 /*
  * JunctionTree-inl.h
- *
- *   Created on: Feb 4, 2010
- *       Author: nikai
- *  Description: the junction tree
+ * Created on: Feb 4, 2010
+ * @Author: Kai Ni
+ * @Author: Frank Dellaert
+ * @brief: The junction tree, template bodies
  */
 
 #pragma once
diff --git a/inference/JunctionTree.h b/inference/JunctionTree.h
index 7c1891109..00cc59ad7 100644
--- a/inference/JunctionTree.h
+++ b/inference/JunctionTree.h
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 /*
  * JunctionTree.h
- *
- *   Created on: Feb 4, 2010
- *       Author: nikai
- *  Description: The junction tree
+ * Created on: Feb 4, 2010
+ * @Author: Kai Ni
+ * @Author: Frank Dellaert
+ * @brief: The junction tree
  */
 
 #pragma once
diff --git a/inference/Makefile.am b/inference/Makefile.am
index 46632d97b..b4f8ed69c 100644
--- a/inference/Makefile.am
+++ b/inference/Makefile.am
@@ -26,11 +26,12 @@ headers += graph.h graph-inl.h
 headers += FactorGraph.h FactorGraph-inl.h
 headers += ClusterTree.h ClusterTree-inl.h
 headers += JunctionTree.h JunctionTree-inl.h
+headers += EliminationTree.h EliminationTree-inl.h
 headers += BayesNet.h BayesNet-inl.h
 headers += BayesTree.h BayesTree-inl.h
 headers += ISAM.h ISAM-inl.h
 headers += ISAM2.h ISAM2-inl.h
-check_PROGRAMS += testFactorGraph testClusterTree testJunctionTree testBayesTree testISAM
+check_PROGRAMS += testFactorGraph testClusterTree testEliminationTree testJunctionTree testBayesTree testISAM
 
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # discrete
diff --git a/inference/testEliminationTree.cpp b/inference/testEliminationTree.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bc367710d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/inference/testEliminationTree.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+/**
+ * @file    testEliminationTree.cpp
+ * @brief   Unit tests for Elimination Tree
+ * @author  Kai Ni
+ * @author  Frank Dellaert
+ */
+
+#include <boost/assign/std/list.hpp> // for operator +=
+#include <boost/assign/std/set.hpp> // for operator +=
+using namespace boost::assign;
+
+#include <CppUnitLite/TestHarness.h>
+
+#define GTSAM_MAGIC_KEY
+
+#include "SymbolicFactorGraph.h"
+#include "ClusterTree-inl.h"
+#include "EliminationTree-inl.h"
+
+using namespace gtsam;
+
+// explicit instantiation and typedef
+template class EliminationTree<SymbolicFactorGraph>;
+typedef EliminationTree<SymbolicFactorGraph> SymbolicEliminationTree;
+
+/* ************************************************************************* *
+ * graph: x1 - x2 - x3 - x4
+ * tree: x1 -> x2 -> x3 -> x4 (arrow is parent pointer)
+ ****************************************************************************/
+TEST( EliminationTree, constructor )
+{
+	SymbolicFactorGraph fg;
+	fg.push_factor("x1","x2");
+	fg.push_factor("x2","x3");
+	fg.push_factor("x3","x4");
+
+	SymbolicEliminationTree expected();
+
+	Ordering ordering; ordering += "x2","x1","x3","x4";
+	SymbolicEliminationTree actual(fg, ordering);
+
+//	CHECK(assert_equal(expected, actual));
+}
+
+/* ************************************************************************* */
+int main() {
+	TestResult tr;
+	return TestRegistry::runAllTests(tr);
+}
+/* ************************************************************************* */
diff --git a/inference/testJunctionTree.cpp b/inference/testJunctionTree.cpp
index 2dfefd589..d033fd7e7 100644
--- a/inference/testJunctionTree.cpp
+++ b/inference/testJunctionTree.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /**
  * @file    testJunctionTree.cpp
- * @brief   Unit tests for Bayes Tree
+ * @brief   Unit tests for Junction Tree
  * @author  Kai Ni
  * @author  Frank Dellaert
  */