The Gold Medal

Werner Sobek is a German architect and structural engineer who founded his own company and the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design. He is known for his sustainable and emissions-free structures, exceptional designs and innovative solutions to minimise our impact on the environment.

The 2024 award was been presented to Werner Sobek in recognition of his innovative work on adaptive structures and significant research into the contribution of structural engineering to carbon-zero.

To celebrate this achievement, Werner delivered an address titled Building in a new world, where he examined the critical challenges facing the building industry, including climate change, resource scarcity and demographic shifts. He emphasized the urgent need to radically rethink our planning and design strategies to create a sustainable built environment, highlighting the essential role of advanced engineering in the responsible use of resources.

Watch Werner's address.

The 2023 award was been presented to Albert Williamson-Taylor, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to structural engineering and to society. 

Having been raised in the UK, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, Albert built his career in London, initially working for Price & Myers and Anthony Hunt Associates, before ultimately co-founding Adams Kara Taylor – now AKT II – in the mid-1990s. Albert has since overseen AKT II’s work and, under his technical leadership, the practice has been recognised with 400+ design awards, including four RIBA Stirling Prize wins.
 
Albert has remained integral in AKT II’s outreach with inner-city schools and colleges, alongside the firm’s volunteer STEM Ambassadors, and has striven to encourage young people from all backgrounds into engineering and design.

Watch Albert's address

Naeem has over 60 years of experience in bridge and structural engineering. A globally renowned bridge designer who has contributed to bridge designs worldwide, reflecting his background in architecture and engineering: harmoniously blending form and function. 

Naeem's work has included the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Shenzhen Bay Bridge in Hong Kong, Brunei Temburong Bridge, the multi awardwinning Hulme Arch Bridge in Manchester, and the highly acclaimed Queensferry Crossing in Scotland, which was awarded the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Major Project Award. 

Watch Naeem's 2022 Gold Medal Address.

The 2021 medal is awarded in recognition of Paul’s world leadership in the design of architecturally expressive structures that incorporate unconventional use of materials including hybrids of wood, steel and concrete.

Paul is founder of Fast + Epp, an internationally recognised structural engineering firm based in Vancouver, Canada.

For over three decades, Paul has been the design lead for many of Fast + Epp’s most significant award-winning projects. These include:

• The Richmond Olympic Oval roof
• The Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre
• The Kingsway Pedestrian Bridge
• The 18-storey TallWood House at UB

View Paul's Gold medal address

Dr Mike Cook was named the 2020 Gold Medallist in recognition of his infectious enthusiasm and curiosity for structural engineering, and his passion and leadership in response to the challenges of climate change.

During 2019 he was instrumental in galvanising UK built environment engineering companies and institutions into declaring a climate emergency. Mike’s address looks at what the climate emergency means for structural engineers. Believing that structural engineers have never been more crucial to the planet, he explores how we can, and will, play a vital part in redrafting the way the next 50 years will unfold.

Watch Mike's Gold Medal Address

James O'Callaghan, co-founder of Eckersley O’Callaghan, was been named our 2019 Gold Medallist in recognition of his internationally-leading expertise in the creative and ambitious use of structural glass

Over the last two decades, James has pushed the development of glass as a structural material, exploring its behavior and its limits in creating increasingly ambitious transparent structures.

In his address, James described the huge leaps made with glass, examining the close relationship between engineering and fabrication; a relationship that James believes is fundamental to the success of any engineering innovation.

Close collaboration between industry and research institutes continues to drive technological advances. James looks at the exciting possibilities of what might be achieved and how these advances could deal with significant challenges facing the discipline.

 Gold Medal Address 2019.

Professor Ding Jiemin FIStructE was awarded the 2018 Gold Medal in recognition of his outstanding leadership directing the structural design of many iconic mega structures which now define modern Shanghai.
Professor Ding specialises in steel structures, super high-rise buildings and long-span complex structural systems.

His recent project experience involves the design for Shanghai Tower, Tangshan New Sports Center, Xi'an Silk Road International Conference Center, Changsha International Convention and Exhibition Center, China UnionPay Business Operation Center and many others.

Among his many achievements he has won nearly 100 design awards and published more than 200 academic papers in domestic and international journals. He most recently won the Supreme Award at the 2024 Structural Awards.

Professor Ding gave his Gold Medal Address at the Marco Polo Hotel in Hong Kong on 4 October 2018, on the subject of Innovation and Practice of Structural Design. Watch the 2018 Gold Medal Address.

Read Professor Ding's blog about the Shanghai Tower.

Jo da Silva, was awarded The Institution’s 2017 Gold Medal.

The Medal recognised her outstanding leadership as both a structural and humanitarian engineer, and for her distinguished and cross-sectoral work on urban resilience.

Among her many achievements, Jo co-ordinated the efforts of over 100 humanitarian agencies to provide transitional shelter in Sri Lanka following the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2005, constructing 60,000 shelters in six months. 

Watch Jo's Gold Medal Address

Robert Halvorson, FIStructE, was named winner of our 2016 Gold Medal.

Bob, as he is known by most, is an industry leader in the structural design of high-rise buildings and long-span structures. Over the last four decades he has engineered more than sixty buildings of forty stories or taller, including Wells Fargo Plaza (formerly Allied Bank Plaza) in Houston, 111 West Wacker in Chicago, Torre Caja Madrid in Madrid, Burj Mohammed bin Rashid Tower in Abu Dhabi, and Hanking Center in Shenzhen.

Bob began his career with Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), serving in their Chicago, Houston, New York, and London offices, becoming the firm's youngest partner at the age of 31. Bob founded Halvorson and Partners in 1996, growing the firm to a staff of nearly seventy professionals within a decade. Under Bob's leadership Halvorson and Partners merged with WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff in 2015.

Bob said of receiving the award:

“To use the British expression, I am gobsmacked! I had no inkling or expectation of this award, and I was in shock for quite a while after being informed. Looking at the eminent past winners of the Gold Medal, I am very thrilled and honoured to be considered worthy. I very much look forward to giving my Gold Medal Address to members of the Institution in the summer.”

Watch Bob's address