Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Dr Jenn-Chuan Chern
Dr. Jenn-Chuan Chern received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Northwestern University in 1984. He was the Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University. Dr. Chern received the Outstanding Contribution of Concrete Technology in Taiwan Award from ACI in 1997 and International Contribution Award from Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) in 2008. Dr. Chern is a fellow of ACI and a corresponding member of International Academy of Engineering of Russia. He is the immediate past chair of Executive Committee of Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating Council (ACECC) and the past vice president of the Asian Concrete Federation (ACF). He has served two terms as the president of Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering (CICHE) and is first president of Taiwan Concrete Institute (TCI).
Mr Ian Firth
Ian joined Flint & Neill in 1979 and became a Partner in 1990 and Chief Operating Officer in 2008. He has 29 years of experience working on the design, construction and maintenance of a wide variety of bridge projects worldwide. These include several major long span crossings, such as the Tsing Ma, Kap Shui Mun, Ting Kau and Stonecutters bridges in Hong Kong and the Humber, Forth, Severn, Wye, Erskine and Cleddau bridges in the UK, as well as many others worldwide. He is currently directing the design of the upgrade and strengthening of the steel box girder West Gate Bridge in Melbourne.
Ian is also well known for the design of a number of award winning footbridges, including the Sail Bridge in Swansea, Lockmeadow Bridge in Maidstone, the Halgavor Bridge near Bodmin and the Bridge of Aspiration in Covent Garden, London.
Ian is also responsible for the structural design of buildings and other structures, and has acted as expert witness in connection with claims and litigation.
His awards include the Institution of Civil Engineers, John Henry Garrood King Medal for a paper on the Design & Construction of the Sail Bridge, the Institution of Structural Engineer's Branch Prize 2001 for a paper on the design of the Lockmeadow Bridge, and the Institution of Structural Engineer's Oscar Faber Award 2003 for the paper: "A Tale of Two Bridges".
Professor Roger Plank
Professor Roger Plank studied at the University of Birmingham in the Department of Civil Engineering, gaining a BSc Degree in 1970 and a PhD in 1973. He gained practical design experience with a structural engineering consultant, working on a wide range of building structures, and became a chartered engineer in 1976 when he joined the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield. He was a leading member of a group which developed software for both teaching and engineering design, with funding from a variety of sources.
In 1987 he joined the School of Architecture, assuming full responsibility for teaching structures, and developing a highly acclaimed dual course in Structural Engineering and Architecture, recognised by both professions. He took up his current appointment as professor in 1995.
He jointly established the internationally renowned Structural Fire Engineering Research Group, which has received the support of research funding bodies and industry. Currently the most active area is the study of the response of whole building structures to fire, using advanced numerical analysis to model the interactions between the structural frame and different types of floor slab. The initial focus was on developing cost-effective solutions for steel framed buildings, but recently this has been extended to examine the robustness of both steel and reinforced structures, including the performance of connections and the effects of spalling. The group has strong links with the industry and was heavily involved with the numerical modelling for the major programme of full scale fire testing at the Building Research Establishment (BRE), Cardington. The work is now being exploited commercially in the design of real buildings through the software package Vulcan.
Roger has also developed an active interest in sustainable construction and has been involved with a number of projects studying a range of issues such as fabric energy storage and design for dismantling. He was the founder chairman of the Sustainable Construction Panel for the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK, and has been actively involved with national government in its strategy for sustainable development. The aim has been to provide engineers with practical advice on how they, as practitioners, can contribute to sustainable development across the whole spectrum of specification of materials, reducing waste, and designing for energy efficiency
Roger is the author of two major books and many scientific papers, dealing principally with issues of structural fire engineering, computer aided teaching and sustainable construction.
He is currently Vice President of the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK.