Diary dates (May 2018)

This month, judge Ron Slade has selected two winners: Duncan Walters of Eckersley O’Callaghan and Rob Nield of Arup. Each receives an e-book of their choice from the Institution’s current catalogue. You can also view Duncan's sketches and Rob's sketches in full online.

In this section we shine a spotlight on papers recently published in Structures – the Research Journal of The Institution of Structural Engineers. This month we highlight eight papers shortlisted for the Structures prizes in 2018: the Best Research Paper Prize and the Best Research into Practice Paper Prize. Members are encouraged to explore these papers. Access to Structures is free to Institution members (excluding Student members) as one of their membership benefits, with access provided via the ‘My account’ section of the Institution website. The journal is available online at: www.structuresjournal.org

In April we marked the 50th edition of the Confidential Reporting on Structural Safety (CROSS) newsletter (page 24). The first newsletter was published in November 2005 with brief comments on a number of short reports under the headings: Near misses, Collapses, Design issues, Building control, Engineers on site, and Fixings. CROSS had started a short while earlier on a six-month trial basis and we had no idea if the project would take off . Since then it has grown and is now the model for versions in other countries. The core topics have remained remarkably similar, showing that lessons must be continuously re-learned so that safety culture can improve. Many thousands read the newsletters around the world and the number continues to grow.