Structural engineers are facing many new challenges.

Structural engineers play a critical role in any construction project, but that role is rapidly changing as the industry addresses a range of new challenges. Dr. Joseph Correnza, 2023 winner of the prestigious John Connell Gold Medal awarded by the Structural College of Engineers Australia, discussed those changes in a recent interview published in International Construction magazine.

Pointing to projects including London’s Millennium Bridge, the National Assembly for Wales and the Melbourne Quarter, Dr. Correnza noted the impact of technology which simultaneously simplifies structural analysis and broadens the range of options that can be considered. Equally important, however, is the emerging need to incorporate a project’s environmental and social impacts and its long-term sustainability into structural design decisions.

He offers six pieces of advice to aspiring structural engineers; be inspired; think of yourself as the user of your decisions; recognise the brilliance of natural designs; master your discipline and be curious about how others impact it; be curious; and, build things with your own hands. By embracing those principles, he believes, tomorrows structural engineers will be able to meet the challenges of climate change, loss and biodiversity and social inequality.