Byron Byrne elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Catz Fellow Byron Byrne, Professor of Engineering Science, has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He joins another 68 engineers appointed this year, all of whom have ‘made exceptional contributions to their sectors in their own way, as innovation leaders, inspiring role models, or through remarkable achievements in business or academia’.
Byron, the Ørsted/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Advanced Geotechnical Design, pursues research in civil and geotechnical engineering, with a focus on offshore renewable energy. He has recently developed new and innovative engineering design models for monopile foundations that support offshore wind turbines, allowing rapid optimisation during the design of individual wind turbines and across an entire wind farm.
As a result of Byron’s work, efficiencies in design have been found that can reduce the materials required for the foundations by up to 30 percent. These designs have been implemented in wind farms already operating in the North Sea, helping to reduce the cost of renewable energy. His close links with industry, notably Ørsted, facilitate a rapid translation of his research to industry practice.
Commenting, Byron said: ‘It is a great honour to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. This award will raise the profile of research in offshore geotechnical engineering, and its important industrial application towards a sustainable renewable energy future.
‘I look forward to working with the Academy to tackle the challenges of our age through the power of engineering, and to inspire the next generation.’
He joins four other fellows of St Catherine’s who are also in the Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship: Professors Patrick Grant, Peter Ireland, Eleanor Stride and Philip Torr.
Read about all of this year’s Royal Academy of Engineering fellows.
About Professor Byron Byrne
Byron read undergraduate degrees in Civil Engineering and Commerce at the University of Western Australia before moving to Oxford in 1996 as a Rhodes Scholar. He pursued his doctoral research at Balliol College, and then post-doctoral research at Magdalen College where he held a Fellowship by Examination and an 1851 Research Fellowship. From 2005 to 2018 he was a University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow in Engineering Science at St Catherine’s. He is currently the Ørsted / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Advanced Geotechnical Design, and a Fellow by Special Election at St Catherine’s College.