Mark Whitby speaks out
Mark Whitby: why I support the protest against Kingsnorth
New coal power, without carbon capture and storage, is a new generation of a lazy old fashioned technology that is a backward step and signals to the world that whilst prepared to talk the talk on global warming we are not prepared to walk it.
Standing together
A confederation of engineering institutions could increase respect for the profession and help influence world events.
Brave new world
Jubilee Introduction
Terms of endearment
If the government were to be judged on the basis of the last four years, I would be publicly positive but secretly disappointed. However, if as expected, it is successful in the election, I imagine we are in for an exciting term.
Beware black holes
The new year's news focused on the crisis in education, reporting that some schools are moving to four day weeks due to lack of teachers. I suspect that the sciences will be suffering more than the arts.
Angels of the North
We are all engineers sharing the perennial problem that there are another 2M people who call themselves engineers and supposedly dilute our status. I say supposedly because I do not share the view that the rank and file engineers deserve less status than the professionals, or that demarcation bequeaths respect.
Reassessing the institutions
One of the refreshing aspects of life is to watch how one's views change. A recent example for me was my change of heart over a long held belief that there is a need to amalgamate some of the engineering institutions.
Across the Rubicon
Comment
Bridges: Engineers must take design lead
Pedestrian bridges, by their nature, are lightweight and the pioneering designs we are seeing are probing the limits of our understanding. Behind the scenes are leading edge computer systems evolved from the aerospace industry, running alongside state of the art wind tunnel testing laboratories.
Balancing the nuclear equation
Tony Blair and I share a problem.
Education is the key
The place of learning is work. The process should come naturally and shouldn’t necessarily be prescriptive. It could be a trip to Paris or the new Tate Modern.
Working with dinosaurs
ANALYSIS
Engineers and economics
ANALYSIS; The M25 totally changed the travelling dynamics of Londoners and everybody else within half an hour's travelling distance of it.
War and Peace
Back in the beginning of time, the founders of the Institution chose to make themselves distinct from the military engineers by calling themselves civil engineers, possibly as a result of their pacifist Quaker origins. Today the same differentiation has come back into focus as military engineering plays its part in removing the veins and arteries of Yugoslav civilisation.
The price is right?
Is achieving Chartered status now less of a priority to both budding engineers and their employers?
Mark Whitby
Mark Whitby is a founding partner Ramboll Whitbybird. He works on projects at concept stage and at stage reviews, focusing on the total design and establishing design criteria and quality objectives.
He has a reputation for imaginative design solutions that exploit the possibilities of materials and the latest construction methods. Vigorously champions a philosophy of sustainable design. He seeks client and industry feedback on the role of engineers in the design and construction process.
Since his Presidency of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2001, he remains committed to the process of restoring engineers to a position where they influence policy and practice at the highest level, and seeks to optimize engineering's contribution to sustainability and urban design.
