Lecture focuses on World Trade Center Collapse

 

Published by the Communications and Development Department

 

12 August 2003

The lessons learned from the World Trade Centre disaster will be the focus of this year’s annual Hopkins Lecture at the Christchurch Town Hall next week.

The free public lecture is on Tuesday 19 August in the Town Hall’s Limes Room and will be presented by Professor Tom O'Rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University in the US.

 

The event is jointly hosted by the University of Canterbury and the Canterbury Branch of the Institute of Professional Engineers and funded by the Hopkins Trust.

 

Professor O’Rourke has written more than 280 publications on geotechnical and earthquake engineering, has served on numerous earthquake reconnaissance missions, and has chaired consulting boards for projects involving highway, rapid transit, water supply, and energy distribution systems.

 

His lecture is titled Lessons learned from the World Trade Centre disaster: Critical Engineering Systems.

 

The Hopkins Lecture is given annually by a distinguished speaker from overseas or New Zealand on a subject that will encourage discussion of engineering matters within the engineering profession and promote public understanding of engineering issues.

 

The Hopkins Trust Fund was set up in recognition of the distinguished contribution to Canterbury University and the engineering profession by the late Professor H J Hopkins, who retired from the university in 1978 after 27 years as head of civil engineering.

 

For more information contact Catherine Price at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Canterbury, on 364 2250 or email catherine.price@canterbury.ac.nz