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The Structural Engineer, Volume 67, Issue 10, 1989
I am very honoured, flattered, as well as somewhat surprised, to receive the Institution’s Gold Medal. I am not sure that I deserve it, but I am sure that it is more a tribute to the firm which I have been privileged to serve for many years than to my personal contribution. G.J. Zunz
In my earliest training in engineering I learnt the physical laws of balance and later studied the phenomena of structural and aerodynamic instabilities in their various forms. As a result, I became confident that engineers were reasonably well equipped to make rational design decisions such as to avoid failures due to predictable loss of equilibrium. In contrast, I have found it to be paradoxical that there are frequently no comparable rational bases from which to determine the correct balance in many non-physical matters of concern to the profession. As a Libran, and in looking back over my working life, it occurred to me that this might be a golden opportunity to ruminate on some of the imponderables which I have encountered. A.R. Flint
Professor A. Jennings Q (Queen’s University of Belfast): It is disturbing that, in the study of structural analysis and design, we rarely take even a sideways glance at what might be learnt from the great world of nature. The author’s paper is therefore a step in the right direction.