Finalists announced for the Young Structural Engineering Professional Award 2026

Matteo Attanasio

Matteo Attanasio is a Senior Structural Engineer at Expedition with a passion for regenerative design and the circular economy. His career is defined by a commitment to producing considered engineering solutions that prioritise the provision of genuine value to local community and wider society.

Throughout his professional experience, Matteo has been developing his expertise in the structural reuse of materials. He has been instrumental in delivering complex projects involving reclaimed steel structures and has pioneered the implementation of firm-wide embodied carbon databases. His technical skillset includes forensic engineering and the development of specialised analysis tools to assess and unlock the potential of existing structures for reuse.

Matteo's leadership in the field also extends to significant research and industry collaboration. He has worked with academic institutions to produce steel section matching tools using stocklist data and is an active member of industry working groups focused on making material reuse mainstream.

As his career has progressed, Matteo has become increasingly interested in ‘doing more good’ rather than simply ‘doing less bad’. He aims to use the regenerative pillars of place, time, and influence as a framework to assess his projects, ensuring his designs actively restore their environments and the second sites they depend on. By integrating his research into material reuse and his keen interest in the wider principles of regenerative design, he aims to disrupt the business-as-usual approach.

In addition to his project work, Matteo is involved in academia and mentorship. He has spent the past three years as a Technical Tutor at the Architectural Association and has recently become a Visiting Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Architecture Catalonia (IAAC). In these roles, he guides students in the structural principles of material reuse, modelling, and the fabrication of structures from waste materials, with a particular emphasis on reclaimed timber.

His commitment to the social value of engineering is reflected in his volunteer work, including international bridge-building projects with Bridges to Prosperity in Rwanda and several years of service as a STEAM ambassador. He has recently become a mentor through the Graduate Engineering Education Programme run by the Royal Academy of Engineering and also volunteers as a Tutor for the Saturday Club, which aims to help young people discover engineering and other technical topics at local universities in their free time.

Currently awaiting confirmation of his IStructE chartership, Matteo continues to bridge the gap between technical research, academic teaching, and professional practice with an aim to help develop a regenerative built environment that is equitable and fair for both people and the planet.

Joshua F Adjodha

Born in Saint Lucia and educated between the Caribbean-Island-Nation and the UK, I developed a dual perspective on the built environment: how structures must perform in resource-constrained, climate‑exposed contexts as well as within the regulatory, heritage and sustainability setting of the UK. This outlook underpins my leadership as a structural engineer, to connect resilient, buildable design within the context and demands of our profession.

My skillset sits at the intersection of structural engineering and architecture. Completing an MEng in Structural Engineering & Architecture at the University of Sheffield, gave me strong analytical foundations in mechanics, materials, dynamics and design, while training my ability to communicate ideas visually and collaboratively. My master’s dissertation, “Structural Design for Adaptability and Growth,” explored how designing for future growth can reduce lifetime embodied carbon compared with pure optimisation. That work continues to reach practitioners and researchers, reflecting my commitment to practice and to advancing sustainability discourse.

Early internships and professional roles in Saint Lucia grounded my engineering judgement in real construction.Working on reinforced concrete frames, foundations in flood‑risk sites, road and water infrastructure, and bespoke dwellings taught me to translate calculations into safe, practical details. Returning as a Civil/Structural Engineer, I delivered design and project management for domestic, hospitality, commercial and utility works, and I learned to design to both Eurocodes and US standards to address hurricane and seismic demands. This breadth has strengthened my capacity to lead design decisions, manage risk and explain structural intent to clients, contractors and multidisciplinary teams.

In the UK, as a Structural Engineer at Michael Aubrey Barrow, a small multi-disciplinary consultancy, I progressed rapidly from domestic alterations to job‑managing small and medium projects, coordinating tasks, checking calculations and drawings, and meeting building control deadlines. I have led concept-to-detail design of extensions and new builds, heritage interventions, and specialist work such as solar roof assessments, screw pile foundations and modular solar carports. Developing configurations required strategic thinking: modelling multiple load cases, refining member efficiency, and creating clear details that could be deployed nationwide.
I also respond to society’s immediate challenges. During the RAAC crisis, I helped deliver Reading Borough Council’s inspection programme for 200 assets, personally scheduling, inspecting and reporting on 80+ sites. This work sharpened my ability to rapidly diagnose structural forms, communicate risk, and prioritise interventions.

Beyond projects, I actively lead within the profession. Since 2022 I have served on the IStructE Thames Valley Regional Group committee as Young Members Representative, and since 2024 on the Young Members Panel, helping shape engagement and support for early‑career engineers.

Most recently I helped organise and co-chaired the Young Engineers Conference 2025, convening over 120 attendees to debate the future of structural engineering, and achieved nomination to CEng AIStructE. My ongoing RIBA Part III studies further strengthened my competence in management and construction law. Combined with my cross‑disciplinary training, international experience and institutional service, I am committed to being an active leader raising standards, mentoring peers, and championing adaptable, resilient, sustainable design for the built and natural environment we serve.

Miriam Graham 

Miriam advances embodied carbon reduction and circular economy principles by bridging industry, research, and policy. She is an embodied carbon and circular economy researcher at the University of Sheffield alongside her role as a structural engineer at Arup.

She leads Arup’s UKIMEA Structural Engineering Sustainability Hub. This involves setting the network's strategy, leading initiatives to upskill engineers across the region to embed sustainability into everyday design decisions, and research to further our collective industry practice. An example of this is a research initiative to develop a calculation methodology for resource constrained materials such as GGBS and recycled steel — materials with low carbon factors, but whose limited supply means use on one project simply prevents use elsewhere, leaving global emissions unaffected. The methodology adjusts our carbon assessments so that options can truly be compared to find the best outcome for the planet (see publications in The Structural Engineer and Structures Journal for further details).

From her experience advocating and designing to minimise embodied carbon on a range of structural engineering projects, she began exploring policy’s role in accelerating practical adoption of sustainable solutions. This led her to a research role at the University of Sheffield, where she focuses on mapping embodied carbon reduction policies within UK planning systems and engaging directly with policymakers to drive practical implementation. This has involved computational analysis of over 4,000 planning documents from every UK Local Planning Authority, workshops with 25 leading LPAs, and national data analysis to assess the impact of embodied carbon policy (see her ResearchGate profile for relevant publications).

In the current phase of this work, she is leading a workstream looking at how to generate consistent comparable whole life carbon data through policy, balancing the ease of information collection with the uncertainty of the output. She is also leading work at Arup to develop embodied carbon policy options for Zero Waste Scotland and Glasgow City Council in response to national NPF4 policy. This explores approaches to limits, targets and a banded contribution mechanism, with details of resourcing and implementation implications.

Miriam is a member of the IStructE Humanitarian and International Development Panel, where she developed a resource map for engineers in the sector. Her interest in the field began with her master's research on the success factors for infrastructure projects in low-income communities, and she has since reviewed and upgraded community hydropower schemes with Engineers Without Borders in the Philippines, managed construction of a Bridges to Prosperity trail bridge in Rwanda before developing their embodied carbon calculations, and overseen seismic resilience upgrades as a resident engineer at the Druk White Lotus School in Ladakh, India.

She is keen to inspire the next generation and overcome barriers to engineering careers. She developed Arup Sheffield's careers education strategy, including creating and delivering a range of reusable resources and workshop offers for schools.

James Jackson 

James is a passionate and energised chartered structural engineer at BDP who has worked on projects across Australia and the United Kingdom, including the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Cancer Centre currently under construction.

James is an active member of the IStructE, working with the London Young Members Group to develop outreach and grow the skills and networks of young professionals within the construction industry. He is a keen leader, working to promote the fantastic work done by Structural engineers across the industry.