The Gold Medal is the Institution’s highest individual award and is made for exceptional personal contributions to the advancement of structural engineering. Previous winners of the Gold Medal include Ove Arup (1973), Edmund Happold (1991) and Michel Virlogeux (1996).

Professor Nethercot’s Gold Medal Address, They all want to be Brunel, was delivered in front of 180 guests at Imperial College London, where he focussed on the rewards and challenges of being a structural engineer, as well as reflecting on his academic career.

Professor Nethercot was President of the Institution in 2003-2004, where he has been active for many years, notably as Chairman of the judges’ panel for the increasingly high profile Structural Awards, a major event which he also anchors on the night. He has won many Institution awards - the Oscar Faber Bronze Medal (1988-89), Murray Buxton Diploma (1990-91), and the Henry Adams Diploma three times (1993-94; 1996-97 and 2004-05).

His academic career spans 40 years of research, teaching, practice, regulation and international engagement. He is Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London where he has been since 1999, after progressing through the ranks in 10 years at Nottingham University and 18 years at Sheffield University. He studied structural engineering at Cardiff University, obtaining his PhD in 1970.