Civil engineering hydraulics; civil engineering infrastructure assets; the longevity and value of civil engineering infrastructure

Throughout my career as a consultant engineer in industry, then an academic, I have sought to deploy Civil Engineering thinking to make the world a better place.

In my most recent research, I have sought to understand our Civil Engineering heritage, using modern thought and techniques to interpret the achievements of the past, and communicate their continuing value, both practically and inspirationally, over succeeding generations.

I was a leader of the interdisciplinary project Engineering the Byzantine Water Supply, examining the construction and operation of the aqueducts supplying the Roman city of Constantinople, which was the longest water supply system in the ancient world and I was Northumbria's Principal Investigator on the follow-up project Water in Istanbul: Rising to the Challenge. I have collaborated with engineering modelling of the water supply and drainage of Pompeii, as well as investigating the hydraulic performance of Roman water pipes excavated from Corbridge.

My latest project is entitled Life Stories of Infrastructure, and is an interdiscplinary study examining how the use and loading of infrastructure, and stakeholders' attitudes to it, changes over its long life and how we might better understand this process to help us design future infrastructure to last longer, saving carbon and cost.

When not working I fire steam engines on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, I build and operate model trains and boats, and I am a fan of Yorkshire and England cricket.

I was member of the Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) from December 2018 to October 2021.

I served on the Fellowship Panel of the ICE from 2011 to 2019.

I serve on the Academic Panel of the Permanent Way Institution (PWI).

I am a Reviewer, carrying out Chartered Professional Reviews, for both the ICE and the PWI.

I am an End-Point Assessor for the University of Birmingham's Railway Systems Engineering and Integration Level 7 Apprenticeship.