Judges

John is a Professor of Structural Engineering, in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. His research and teaching address climate emergency through interdisciplinary design. John has secured more than £11million in research funding – he was the first person in the UK to receive an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship in Structural Engineering, won an EPSRC Bright Ideas award, and led the EPSRC Energy Feasibility Study “MEICON” which examined the culture of design in structural engineering as it relates to embodied and whole life carbon.

John is passionate about teaching and has been instrumental in developing the first new undergraduate degree at Cambridge for many decades. This new degree brings together architecture, engineering, and materials science to give students the skills required to create new solutions to our present global challenges, including climate emergency.

John’s work with the IStructE Climate Emergency Task Group has included co-authoring the guide “How to Calculate Embodied Carbon”. John was also lead author on “Design for Zero”, published in 2021, which built on academic and industrial work to present a vision for a sustainable future.  

Matt is a Co-Founder and Director at Subteno.  He is a practicing ‘hands-on’ engineer with experience across a diverse range of sectors including offshore energy, commercial, retail, industrial and residential. 

Matt specialises in structural steel design, working closely with contractors over many years.  Within the offshore energy sector, he works predominantly within the 'brown field' sector, providing engineering solutions for rejuvination, end-of life decomplexing and decomissioning.

Matt has been actively involved with the Institution since the mid 1990's serving on numerous panels and committees, twice as East Anglian Regional Group Chairman, Council and the Board, as well as serving as President in 2023.  
 

Katherine is currently a Professor in Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering (CEGE) at University College London (UCL) and is also a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both the Institution of Structural Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers. Prior to joining UCL in November 2022, Katherine worked as a Reader in Structural Engineering at Brunel University London, as a Senior Structural Engineer at the Steel Construction Institute and a Senior Engineer at High Point Rendel Ltd.

Her principal research interests lie in the area of structural testing, numerical modelling and the development of efficient design guidance for steel and composite structures. In particular, she has developed an expertise in the analysis of structural response during extreme loading conditions, such as a fire.  She is also actively engaged in researching the use of novel materials such as stainless steel, high strength steel and FRP’s in building and infrastructural applications.

Margaret is a Conservation Accredited Engineer and a founding Director of Integral Engineering Design. Since its inception over 25 years ago the practice has specialised in low carbon design, whether through building re-use or through using low carbon materials and integrated design to produce the lowest carbon footprint for the lifetime of a building.
 
Margaret is an acknowledged leader in conservation and re-use of buildings and was the 2021 winner of the IABSE Milne Medal, awarded to an individual engineer for excellence in structural design. She says “As engineers we should be trying to make ourselves redundant! The best thing we can do for the planet is to give existing buildings new life with as little intervention as possible.”  Achieving this requires strong skills in listening to clients and fully understanding their aims, challenging assumptions and creating strong working relationships with fellow designers.
 
 
 
 

Kayin has 20 years' experience working as a structural engineer on projects worldwide. He champions the creative design process, typically in complex and unusual design-led projects. Prior to moving to Sweden in 2015, he worked at Arup for almost 10 years, and is now working as a Design Director at Tyréns Sweden.
He is the current IStructE Representative in Sweden and teaches at Chalmers University in Gothenburg.
Kayin co-founded the Bridges to Prosperity UK Charitable Trust, and is the 2014 winner of the IStructE's Young Structural Engineering Professional Award.
 

Professor Ding is the Chief Engineer of Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd. Throughout his career he has demonstrated dedication to excellence in structural engineering design. Professor Ding specialises in steel structures, super high-rise buildings and long-span complex structural systems.

He has completed the structural design for more than ten high-rise buildings above 250m and more than 80 sports buildings. Professor Ding is a council member of the Institution of Structural Engineers and he was awarded the IStructE Gold Medal in 2018.

Ian is a leading expert in bridge design and construction. During his career he has been involved with world-famous bridge projects like the strengthening of the Severn Bridge, Erskine Bridge and West Gate Bridge, and the concept design of Stonecutters’ Bridge in Hong Kong, as well as many smaller pedestrian bridges such as the Inner Harbour Bridge in Copenhagen, Taplow Bridge near Maidenhead and the Sail Bridge in Swansea.

He is also a leading advocate of bridge-building charity Bridges to Prosperity and a Past President of The Institution of Structural Engineers.

Thomas is an Associate Sustainability Consultant and chartered Structural Engineer at Elliott Wood. He leads the practice with their Pre-Demolition Auditing and has assisted in the development of the IStructE’s Structural Carbon Tool. He sits on the BSI Technical Subcommittee B/558/1 ‘Circular economy in the construction sector’ helping write the future standards of Pre-Deconstruction Audits, and also is on the steering group for the Engineers Reuse Collective. He’s worked on a wide range of projects, from small, retail refurbishments to large scale refurbishment projects, like Grain House.
 
Beyond his professional work, Thomas tutors at the University of Westminster and University of Brighton, where he supports architectural students with their structure’s knowledge.

Tanya is a Structural Engineer with nearly 30 years of design experience leading a diverse range of award-winning and landmark projects globally and is driven by an ethos of technical excellence.
Tanya is presently Aurecon’s Chief Engineering, Eminence and Innovation Officer, where she leads Aurecon's efforts to empower engineers and designers to consistently deliver technical excellence in a changing industry and attain eminence as leaders in their respective fields.
She is passionate about projects and collaborations that positively impact communities by applying engineering expertise, innovative approaches, and technology to create new solutions.
Celebrating the engineer's role in society is important to Tanya and she believes the Institution provides access to the community, resources, and technical progression that allow this to happen.

Ed is a licensed civil and structural engineer in Washington, and is licensed in six other states.  He is the sole proprietor of Huston Structural Engineering, PLLC.  Ed has over 4 decades of experience in structural design, evaluation, investigation and US code and standards development.  He has been very active in the Structural Engineers Association of Washington (SEAW), the National Council of Structural Engineering Associations (NCSEA), the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), and IStructE, where he is a Chartered Member, an Institution representative in the United States, and a member of the exams panel.    
 
Ed has served on the board of directors and as President of the Applied Technology Council (ATC), a national nonprofit organization whose goal is to develop and disseminate engineering applications for mitigating the effects of natural and other hazards on the built environment.  He served on the Project Technical Committee for P-2055, the Post-disaster Building Safety Evaluation Guidance.  Ed was the Lead Technical Consultant for the development of ATC 45 - A Field Manual for Safety Evaluations of Buildings after Windstorms and Floods.  He also was a reviewer for the ATC 20-3 Case studies in Rapid Postearthquake Safety Evaluation of Buildings. Ed has participated in reconnaissance efforts after hurricanes, floods, high wind events, and earthquakes

Martin is one of the leading UK architects specialising in the design of bridges and transport infrastructure and is a Fellow of RIBA and the Institution of Civil Engineers and an Honorary Fellow of IStructE.
 
He founded international bridge designers Knight Architects in 2006 and his practice has completed more than seventy bridges in the UK and internationally, including the award-winning Merchant Square Bridge in London, the iconic Lower Hatea River Crossing in New Zealand, and the 270m-long Ulm Kienlesbergbrücke in Germany.
 
 

Eric is about Civil, Structure & Mechanical Engineering integration of those engineering aspects. He received his professional training in the United Kingdom and has over 26 years of industrial experience in major international practices. He is a chartered fellow Structural Engineer has extensive design and construction experience that spans across projects in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, South-East Asia and the PR of China.  
 
Eric has directed the design and erection of a broad spectrum of mega projects on both national and global scales. His specialization lies in Steel Structure, Heavy Lifting and large-scale Modulization. His passion is mainly for mega structures, i.e. long-span bridges, airports, stadia, offshore structures and high-rise structures. He continues to commit and engage with the creative erection methodology but yet adopts technically grounded and pragmatic solutions to high-profile infrastructure.
 
 

Toby is a structural engineer and established Allt environmental structural engineers in 2020, a firm concentrating on addressing the urgent need to decarbonise the built environment with a particular emphasis on carbon embodied in structures.

Toby’s career so far has been one based on providing practical yet technically sophisticated and holistic solutions to diverse projects in the built environment and concentrating on design from first principles. Having served a stint with Arup after graduation, Toby spent five years based in the studio of an architect/artist, before establishing TALL Engineers in 2005. After merging TALL with Entuitive in 2016, Toby remained as UK Director until leaving to concentrate on Allt.

Michelle is a NED, consultant and mentor, with over 40 years’ experience in structural engineering design. Previously, she was a Board Director of BDP and led their Civil & Structural Engineering group for 24 years. There, she led the redevelopment of the Royal Albert Hall and the 250-strong design team on the £bi Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster. Michelle's passion is for inter-disciplinary design, creating a platform for truly innovative, low-carbon design. 

In 2010, Michelle was awarded an MBE for services to the construction industry. She is an active Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and in 2011 was named Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year. She is a former ICE vice-president and former Chair of the Association of Consultancy and Engineering. She received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bristol and Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2014 and 2020 from Women in Construction and from the University of Bristol in 2024.

Rossella Nicolin is Head of Sustainability for Europe in Laing O’Rourke. She is an experienced engineering professional and passionate driver for sustainability in the construction industry, having held senior leadership positions in the industry across engineering and sustainability. She is an award-winning engineer with almost 20 years international experience in the construction sector. She worked in many different countries and led major projects design and delivery across UK, Europe, Asia and USA. She’s a chartered structural and civil engineer in the UK, a licenced civil Professional Engineer in the USA and she’s a Fellow of both ICE and IStructE. In her role in Laing O’Rourke, Rossella has key executive responsibilities for the Europe Hub sustainability function, covering operations, projects and key strategic initiatives across UK and Middle East for both environmental and social sustainability agendas and company targets.

Roger is the Head of the Structural Engineering team at Foster + Partners. He is a Fellow of The Institution of Structural Engineers and a licensed Professional Engineer and Structural Engineer in the United States.

He was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal in 2010, and the IABSE Milne Medal in 2017.
 

Will is a chartered Structural Engineer working in the Humanitarian Sector. He holds an MEng in Civil Engineering from UCL and a post-graduate Masters in Interdisciplinary Design in the Built Environment from the University of Cambridge. Will previously worked for 9 years as a Structural Engineer at Price & Myers on projects ranging from community workshops to major pieces of national infrastructure. In his current role, Will leads RedR’s Climate and Engineering programmes with the aim of strengthening the capacity of humanitarian response around the globe. Will passionately believes that engineers have a vital role to play in meeting the needs of a rapidly changing world.
Will is a member of the Humanitarian and International Development Panel at the IStructE and also acts as Head of Secretariat for the WaSH Roadmap, an initiative to improve sectoral standards within the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene sector. Will is currently working on the publication of the third edition of the Engineering in Emergencies handbook, a vital tool for engineers working in disaster response.
 

SawTeen See leads the analysis and development of the structural design, and in the coordination of the structural engineering services with Owner, Architect, Services Engineer and Contractor. She works closely with the staff of all firms on the design/construction team. Partly retired, she now provides professional services on a consulting basis.

Andrew is a Senior Engineer at Arup, specialising in structural safety. His work covers a broad range of safety topics, from structural and structural-fire assessments of existing buildings through to design of novel timber structures and advising the Building Safety Regulator on emerging structural risks in the built environment.
 
Andrew is an active contributor to industry guidance and standards. He was the principal author of the IStructE’s new guide “Appraising factors of safety in existing engineered structures” and has contributed to several other recent and upcoming IStrutE guides / papers. He is also a member of the BSI committees for the Eurocodes covering accidental actions, masonry design and timber design, and represents the UK at European (CEN) level on the latter. Andrew’s contributions to the industry were recognised by the IStructE in 2025 via the Young Structural Engineering Professional Award and an Oscar Faber Award.
 

Claire Smith is a Partner at Buro Happold, where she brings more than 30 years of structural engineering experience across general consultancy and specialist fabric‑structures contracting. Joining the practice in 1992, on graduating from the University of Bath, she has built a career defined by technical excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and a commitment to engineering that expresses the inherent qualities of materials.  She thrives in interdisciplinary environments and deepened this interest through a part‑time Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment at the University of Cambridge, completed in 1999.
 
As Southwest Market Lead for Buro Happold, Claire is committed to sharing the knowledge gained from Buro Happold’s international project work with the local communities she serves. She leads strategic growth and client engagement across the region, ensuring global best practice is translated into local benefit. Her current major projects include: Regeneration of North and South Quays (Bath), University of Bristol’s new campus, and Epic, Long Ashton Bristol.

Claire is a Chartered Structural (1999) and Civil (2000) Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers (2018), and an Honorary Doctor of Engineering of the University of Bath (2024). Her honorary degree recognises her leadership, technical talent, and embodiment of the pioneering spirit that has long connected Buro Happold with the University of Bath. She is also co‑author of Design for Zero (2021), the Institution of Structural Engineers’ guide to reducing embodied carbon in building structures—a collaborative publication between the Institution and the Universities of Bath and Cambridge.

Katie is Principal Advisor, Engineering, in the Building System Performance branch of New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. She is leading the New Zealand Government’s work to reduce whole-of-life embodied carbon emissions of buildings.

Katie is a chartered professional structural engineer in New Zealand and the UK, a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and has over 15 years’ experience designing building structures in both countries. She has particular expertise in assessing the embodied carbon of buildings and construction materials.

Working as a consulting engineer, she developed tools and methodologies to integrate carbon assessment into the building design process. She has also undertaken research work at Cambridge University on the application of environmental life cycle assessment in construction, and is the author of a number of academic papers on the subject.

Peter has just stepped down after four years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institution of Structural Engineers. He is the founder of Terrell Group and currently President of their Supervisory Board. After early years with Ove Arup, Peter set up as sole practitioner in 1982 in Paris, building a practice that is today recognised as one of the leading structural and multi-disciplinary engineering consultancies in France, with over 120 employees in France, UK and the Middle East.

He has been at the forefront of many successful projects including the Doha Tower (CTBUH Best Tall Building Worldwide 2012), the DR Byen Concert Hall in Copenhagen, and numerous emblematic buildings in Paris.  He continues to be closely involved both with the evolution of his practice and the international development of IStructE.