Modern uses of steel e-conference

David has been steeped in steel construction and its technical development for 15 years at BCSA, where he was involved in the development of many of the national and European standards (Eurocodes) for steel design and execution. He is also an expert on CE marking of fabricated steelwork and is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed publications and design guides, some of which are used daily by practising engineers. Before BCSA he spent 23 years at the Building Research Establishment (BRE), where he was part of the Construction Division during its privatisation period, and led a team of 32 scientists, directing its Centre for Structural and Geotechnical Engineering.

Graham began his career as a contractor working on site and in a design office. This was followed by five years at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne working in the area of composite construction. Upon his return to a UK design office, carrying out bridge assessments, he then spent 9 years at SCI, working on frame and connection behaviour, composite construction and light gauge construction. Graham joined BRE in 2004 to run a Centre that covered both engineering and building physics disciplines including: structural and materials testing, timber technology, concrete technology, wind loading, geotechnics, acoustics and airtightness. He returned to the SCI in 2007 and became CEO in 2009. He is a former chairman of CEN/TC250/SC4, the committee responsible for Eurocode 4.

In his current role at Elliott Wood, Ian splits his time between structural design and sustainability. A chartered structural engineer, Ian has a range of experience across multiple sectors and specialises in long span steel design. More recently, Ian has worked on a range of net zero carbon initiatives, including leading the embodied carbon workstream for the NHS Net Zero Carbon Building Standard and the DfE GenZero Schools Project. Ian is a member of the IStructE Sustainability Panel, authoring two published papers in the Structural Engineer Journal and co-producing the Structural Sustainability Report Template in his term on the panel.

In her current role at COWI, Joanna overlooks operations in the southern half of the business. Joanna has led and managed many technically demanding designs, check and assessments of bridge projects. She has a particular focus on efficiently extending the life of existing assets. Key projects have included strategically important existing structures across the UK, and she has authored and co-authored a number of technical papers, focusing on the challenges and opportunities posed by working on existing bridges. Joanna is a Chartered Structural Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (CEng FICE MIStructE).

With over 20 years working in structural steel, Jonathan started his career working for a design & build specialist. Moving to William Hare in 2011, Jonathan has spent the last 10 years working with clients and specifiers to design out risk and add value wherever possible. With carbon moving into the forefront of people’s minds, Jonathan has championed green design principles and worked closely with industry to promote the benefits of steel in this environment. Sitting on the BCSA’s Sustainability Committee, Jonathan has contributed to publications like the NSSS ‘s Annex J – Sustainability Specification and the Model specification for the purchase of reclaimed steel sections.

Prior to taking current role at REIDsteel in 2019, John worked for the company as both a Structural Software Engineer and a Structural Engineer. During his REIDsteel career, John has designed over a hundred structures across six continents. Projects include bridges, hospitals and aircraft hangars. His design for the Bombardier Maintenance Hangar is now shortlisted for the BCSA’s structural steel design awards. Never content to just design, John has taken a leading role in developing company software and procedures, to ensure that every structure is designed efficiently and erected safely. To value engineering complex structures and developing computational engineering to reduce labour-intensive design processes are among his favourite activities. John enjoys presenting, whether to UK Engineers, Malaysian Air force officers or Ugandan Politicians. He is a member of the BCSA’s Process & Technical Committee and The Connections Group. Previously he has served on the IStructE Wales Regional Group.

Matthew is a chartered engineer with 27 years of experience working in the structural steel industry. His last 20 years have been spent working with one of the UK’s leading structural steel contractors, Caunton Engineering. His experience brings together a unique blend of practical, operational and design experience. During his career, Matthew has been responsible for the design of various projects, including off-shore rig installations, high rise residential and commercial developments, retail shopping centers and various industrial buildings. Additionally, Matthew has spent time working as a consultant for an international charity, advising on modern building techniques and on designs for disaster relief structures. In more recent times, Matthew was appointed as Managing Director of Caunton Engineering, who currently fabricate in excess of 40,000 tons of steel per year.

Rob joined Buro Happold Engineering in the Leeds office as a graduate engineer, and has since worked in the New York offices and was a founder member of Buro Happold’s Los Angeles office. Rob joined the Hong Kong office in its early days in late 2009. As focus moved to mainland China projects, Rob transitioned to the Beijing office in 2011. He relocated back to the UK in early 2016 and is now based in our Bath office specialising in the Sports sector. Rob has experience leading a variety of large scale and complex building projects, from concept to construction, including stadia, arenas and infrastructure buildings. Rob has led large multidisciplinary teams of Engineers and Technical staff to deliver complex design and build projects with challenging programmes. He has detailed knowledge and experience applying computational solutions including Rhino, Grasshopper, Revit, Robot and other specialist software/bespoke scripts, to solve complex Engineering problems.

In his current role, William works as a structural engineer and multidisciplinary engineering design leader in close collaboration with clients and architects to develop holistic design solutions that offer high value and costs-effective solutions. He has a background in research and application of advanced analytical methods, and favours employing first-principles approaches to develop innovative and efficient designs, often in seismic regions. He has a strong focus on optimizing material use and developing more sustainable building designs, often by pushing the boundaries of established convention. He works with an ideology of technical exploration in inquisitive pursuit of excellence, typically with influential and uncompromising architectural collaborators and highly committed clients.

As Severfield’s Group Engineering Director, Dan leads on engineering procedural activities, working closely with leaders across the Severfield Group and instilling a culture of technical innovation and design for manufacture & assembly. Applying his experience and knowledge of the manufacture of metallic structural fabrications in the nuclear, military, mining & construction sectors, Dan is responsible in delivering on engineering improvement strategies, managing risk and ensuring safety through design. Dan has worked in many roles at Severfield including design, production, construction & quality, so has a unique insight to project delivery in the built environment.

David is a chartered structural engineer with extensive experience as a design consultant. He has managed and designed a variety of projects on both a large and small scale, including being Project Director of the Dinosaur Swing Bridge, Cody Dock Rolling Bridge and lead designer for Greenwich Reach Swing Bridge (winner of the Pedestrian Bridge category at the 2015 Structural Awards). He delights in working closely with architects to design and project manage bridges, buildings, sculptures and moving structures. In his current role at Cake Industries, David has been responsible for the creation of a design and engineering team within the multi-material fabrication business, as well as creating a stand-alone structural engineering consultancy, Cake Engineering. David serves as Vice-Chair of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineers (IABSE) British Group. David is an effective engineering communicator and has appeared on BBC News, ITV News, the Discovery Channel and Channel 5.

Gary has worked in the steelwork industry for 45 years, starting his career at William Hare Ltd. as an apprentice draughtsman in 1977. During his career, Gary has specialised in steelwork connection design and he has been fortunate to work with many different design codes around the world. He has overseen the transition from drawing board to CAD (computer-aided-design). Gary became a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 1991, he was appointed as Technical Director to the William Hare Group in 2006 (a position that he held until 2020), and he has been a Director of the SCI (Steel Construction Institute) UK for the past 6 years. He was also voted as Deputy President of the BCSA (UK) 2 years ago and will hopefully become the next President in 2023.

Nick has worked on complex steel framed projects for nearly 20 years, with a specialism in stadium projects, over station developments and buildings with large transfer systems. During his career, he has spent time working for a leading steelwork fabricator and now uses this experience to educate engineers at Robert Bird Group in the importance of considering connection detailing and erection methodology in design work carried out by consulting engineers. He is currently contributing to the SCI production of guidance for the design and specification of complex steel connections. Robert Bird Group takes a leading role in designing complex structures to optimise construction methodology and reduce temporary works.

Tom is a Structural Engineer with 15 years of experience in the design of challenging and large-scale projects, specializing in complex and visually exposed structural steelwork and long-span structures. Now based in Bath, Tom previously worked in Hong Kong on a number of significant projects for the region, including the Xiqu Centre and the Morpheus Hotel in Macau. Through these, he developed his understanding of connection design and fabrication techniques. Tom is the global lead for Buro Happold’s internal steel community, sharing and coordinating design expertise in steelwork across the practice. His recent projects include the 23,500-seat Co-op Live arena in Manchester and the 175m span roof structure for Everton’s new stadium, both of which are currently on site.

Danielle is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield, UK. She is a Director of the Urban Flows Observatory, leading research on understanding the use and stock of resources in cities. She is the principal investigator of the EPSRC-funded grant ‘multi-scale, circular economic potential of the non-residential building stock and the co-creator of regenerate - a tool that explores 'how circular is my building'’ - in order to engage design teams to embed circular economy strategies into building design. Danielle is passionate about reducing the impact of the built environment on the planet. She particularly focuses on methods to reduce the demand for new material use (e.g., through increased retrofit to extend building lifetimes and reduce operational carbon), as well as applying circular economy principles to new-built environment design.

In his current role at Arup, Dominic provides technical advice and support to a large range of clients and project teams, based on an in-depth understanding of structural behaviour and design, particularly in steel and composite construction. He is committed to finding economic ways to make real reductions in embodied carbon in construction and is engaged with steel industry bodies working towards net zero targets.

Ella is a creative engineer with a highly organised and technical approach. With over 15 years of experience, she has worked on a wide range of reuse and new-build projects across the commercial, education, residential and cultural sectors. At the beginning of last year, Ella expanded her role joining the practice’s in-house research and innovation team, HTS+. This has allowed her to push the boundaries on the everyday application of engineering and bridge the gap between practical application on projects and innovation. Ella’s current focus is researching the reuse of steelwork and she has successfully pioneered its use on Holbein Gardens, a refurbishment project for Grosvenor. Having dedicated time to carry out research and push concepts further has given her a great insight into how to guide future design teams in the future. Ella is passionate about sustainable structural design, she sits on the practice’s Timber Focus Group and regularly contributes to design reviews and discussions on timber‐frame projects at HTS.

Jane has over 20 years of experience in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Embodied Carbon and Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for the construction industry. She represents the UK at European and International Standards meetings on EPD and Building LCA, and is an approved verifier for EPD programmes across Europe and Australasia. She has reviewed LCA and Embodied Carbon methodologies at product and building level for compliance with standards, including the RICS Professional Statement on Whole Life Carbon in the Built Environment, the IStructE Guide to calculating Embodied Carbon, and CIBSE TM 65. She also is on the Technical Working Groups for the revision of PAS 2080, UNIDO’s IDDI and BREEAM Carbon. She has written guidance on Embodied Carbon for Woodknowledge Wales, the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products, the Construction Products Association, CIRIA and WRAP, and is working on the update of the RICS Professional Statement with the Whole Life Carbon Network.

Over the course of his 30-year career, Martin has worked in the London commercial real estate sector, both as a consultant and in construction delivery, striving to exceed the high-quality and ESG benchmarks expected for this market, and with a keen focus on bringing together a collaborative team, which he feels is key to the successful delivery of projects. Working at GPE for the last 15 years, Martin has been responsible for the delivery of some of their most significant developments. Notably, he has recently completed GPE’s Hanover development, a complex scheme with close liaison with Crossrail, working above and around their Bond Street Elizabeth Line station.

Penny is a Chartered Structural Engineer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. As Head of Sustainability at Elliott Wood, she currently leads a growing sustainability-focused which offers a range of sustainability consultancy services beyond the remit of typical structural and civil engineering. She is a member of the IStructE’s Climate Emergency Task Group, helping to deliver the Institution’s response to the climate emergency, including The Structural Carbon Tool. As part of this work, Penny is the lead author for a new book providing guidance on Circular Economy & Reuse for structural engineers, due to be published later this year. She is very active in UKGBC research on Circular Economy, particularly on the reuse of steel.

Roy has been employed at CST for 35 years and, throughout that time, he has led the company in repurposing and reusing steel tubes. Since 2012, and the advent of EN1090 and the CE marking of steel, Roy has been involved in the lobbying, and subsequent changes to legislation, regarding steel reuse and construction. Roy is chair of the BCSA sustainability committee, which has sponsored the SCI in producing the Steel Reuse Protocol and has participated in InnovateUK projects. He has been actively involved with promoting Circular Economy in construction through steel reuse and also in pilot projects and case studies through a number of different Associations and Bodies.

Suria has over 15 years’ experience in the construction industry, having worked in engineering consultancies and as both client and contractor for Lendlease. Suria is passionate about reducing the impact of the construction industry on the environment. She has used her unique position in the industry to leverage supply chain relationships and implement changes to reduce the whole life carbon of buildings. She is an active member of SteelZero and ConcreteZero.

Tim Leigh has a background in technology and the creative industries. He joined Stage One as Sales & Marketing Director in 2013 and, in 2019, he was appointed Managing Director whilst maintaining responsibility for operational leadership of the sales team. He works on projects ranging from Olympic opening ceremonies to pieces of experimental architecture and remains an integral part of the delivery of large high-profile projects, from concept development through to installation on site. Tim has an MBA from Durham University in addition to a BA and MSc degree qualifications. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in 2018.