Chair

Paul is Professor of Civil Engineering Systems and Executive Director of the Scottish Institute of Sustainable Technology at Heriot Watt University. He is also a Board Member of Scottish Water. He graduated from Imperial College, and was a Lecturer there from 1974 until he moved to Heriot Watt in 1987, becoming Head of Civil Engineering from 1989 to 1999. In 1997 he was an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where he still has strong connections with the engineering community. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2005.Paul’s major interests are sustainable development and systems-level solutions in engineering and the environment, particularly in water resources, asset management and water distribution systems. Paul was Chair of the ICE Presidential Commission – “Engineering without Frontiers” – that examined the engineer’s contribution to meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Paul also has a strong interest in the educational and professional formation of the civil engineer, chairing an ICE/JBM Task Group to embed sustainable development into engineering curricula and professional development. He is currently a Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and serves on its Environment and Sustainability Board.He is Editor of “Civil Engineering and Environmental Systems”, a former Editor of the ICE’s Water, Maritime and Energy Journal and currently a member of the Editorial Panel of the ICE Journal “Engineering Sustainability”. Paul is a trustee of the Forth Bridges Visitor Centre. He is a member of “The Edge” – an ICE/RIBA/CIBSE Ginger Group created to increase public and political awareness of the role of engineers and architects. In 1996 his lecture on water resources – “From the Metamorphosis of Ajax to the Sweet Water of Leith” – featured in the Edinburgh International Science Festival.In his private life he enjoys old cars and old houses, being the co-owner of one of Edinburgh’s last surviving mews stables properties in the Dean Village.

Since 1966 he has been the owner, driver and restorer of a 1937 Morgan Motor Tricycle (a Matchless MX4 990cc V-Twin powered Barrel Back Super Sports). He also enjoys painting and sculpture.