• Question: Are there any people in your profession you aspire too or anybody you would consider a celebrity in your profession (e.g:a well known engineer)

    Asked by meganl56 to Al, Emma, Ivanka, James, Omar on 19 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Ivanka Brown

      Ivanka Brown answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      I think one of the better known engineers in the Civil Engineering industry would be Chris Wise – he’s definitely has some TV appearances and is often at the heart of the discussions about the contribution of bridge engineers to aesthetics.

      In geotechnics, I would have to say one of the well known engineers, who inspires me, is John Burland, he not only helped stabilise the leaning tower of Pisa (which was starting to fall over!), he also increased our knowledge of the ground below London during the Jubilee Line extension project so that the new Crossrail tunnels will be more efficient to construct. He has helped increase our knowledge of soil mechanics so that engineering design is directly using new design methods.

    • Photo: Al Bartlett

      Al Bartlett answered on 19 Mar 2012:

      Hello Meganl056,

      I think in the aviation profession you really aspire to be the best that you can be within your field. The aviation industry doesn’t really have any celebrities so there is no-one to aspire to.

      The most important thing is to keep learning new things every day and increasing your knowledge in your section as well as engineering as a whole and maybe one day, someone will aspire to be YOU!!

    • Photo: Omar Mustufvi

      Omar Mustufvi answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      There have been many amazing automotive engineers in the past, you will probably recognise these engineers’ names: Ferdinand Porsche, Karl Benz, Sakichi Toyoda. These people were doubly clever because not only were they engineers but business men too.

      These days most of the celebrities are those you see on the TV- in Formula 1, Top Gear etc. I don’t really aspire to any one engineer in particular but I really appreciate the determination of Elon Musk and Martin Eberhard who are the founders of Tesla Motors. They had a lot of problems when they first started out in the business but they worked very hard and didn’t give up, now they are probably the most successful electric car company in the world.

    • Photo: Emma Bould

      Emma Bould answered on 20 Mar 2012:

      We have a couple of engineers in the Navy who are Olympic athletes – Penny Clark does Sailing, she is one that springs to mind.

Comments