NZSEE - Events - Obituary http://www.nzsee.org.nz/events/bparkobit.html Page 1 of 2 Who we are Events Members Management Publications Technical Activities Join Past NZSEE Conferences 2004 2002 2001 1999 1998 Robert Park (1933-2004) The Society records with sadness that Life Member Professor Bob Park passed away on November 3, 2004 at the age of 71 in Christchurch, New Zealand, ending a long and still-active career in the civil engineering and earthquake engineering fields that made him well known around the world. Bob graduated from the University of Canterbury, and returned in 1965 to join the faculty of the Department of Civil Engineering following his PhD from the University of Bristol. He left a lasting impression on a large number of undergraduate and graduate students. The PhD students whom he advised in particular continue to carry forward his influence, the first of whom was Nigel Priestley, with the total exceeding twenty by the time of his retirement in 1999. From 1978 to 1992, Bob was Chair of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Canterbury, and then he filled the role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1993 to 1999. In those positions, while continuing his productive research, he was instrumental in building up the university s laboratory and other civil engineering resources. Those management contributions were essential to putting the University of Canterbury on the map as one of the world s pre-eminent sites of earthquake engineering research. In the field of reinforced concrete structural design, Bob is well known for his voluminous research output (over 150 technical papers) and his classic 1975 textbook, co-authored with his colleague and friend Tom Paulay, Reinforced Concrete Structures. He also co-authored with William Gamble another often-used text, Reinforced Concrete Slabs. He was one of the key people in the creation of the seismic design method called capacity design, a key innovation with regard to reinforced concrete structures and more broadly a notable development in the overall history of earthquake engineering. At the time of his death, Park was active as leader of a committee of the fib (fédération internationale du béton) at work on the task of increasing the unification of the world s reinforced concrete code procedures. Although he was a professor rather than a practicing engineer, he was often chosen as the leader of New Zealand engineering
NZSEE - Events - Obituary http://www.nzsee.org.nz/events/bparkobit.html Page 2 of 2 committees to study pressing structural design issues, committees which in effect wrote the national building code provisions for earthquake engineering and for reinforced, precast, and prestressed concrete. His honours in New Zealand include being the first civil engineer in the country to be asked to join the Royal Society of New Zealand, and he was given awards or honorary memberships by the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand, the New Zealand Structural Engineering Society, the New Zealand Concrete Society, and the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, along with receiving the first Research Medal issued by the University of Canterbury. Bob s influence extended internationally via his building code development work and his teaching in Latin America, Europe, Japan, the United States, and Asia. International honours included his membership in the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom, and he was made an Officer of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE). The status of honorary memberships or medals were conferred on him by the International Association of Earthquake Engineering, the American Concrete Institute, Fédération Internationale de la Precontrainte (FIP), and the worldwide reinforced concrete society, the fib. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute is in the process of preparing an oral history volume on Bob Park and Tom Paulay that will be jointly published with the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering in 2005. Bob was the loved husband of Pauline and the late Kathy, and father of Robert, Brendon, Tony, Moira and Jackie. The New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering salutes Bob s enormous contribution to earthquake engineering and the Society, and joins with his family in mourning his passing. (The NZSEE gratefully acknowledges oral history editor Robert Reitherman for the above biography) 2000-04 NZSEE - All Rights Reserved Maintained by the webmistress last update: 5-11-2004
Page 1 of 16 UC Home Courses Departments Library Teaching Research Students Contacts Search News and Events HIT Lab NZ Ltd has designs on Europe The University of Canterbury 's human-computer interface research partnership with the Canterbury Development Corporation and the University of Washington has developed a new education exchange programme which will enable New Zealand students to study interaction design in Europe. Interaction design generally deals with improving the interfaces between machinery and people and the future focus is on accessing digital technology. Details of the new pilot programme, Leonardo: A multi-national exploration in Interaction Design education and research, have been announced by the Associate Education Minister (Tertiary Education) Steve Maharey. HIT Lab NZ Ltd has developed the three-year programme with Waikato University, the Wanganui School of Design, the Universities of Lancaster and Nottingham in the UK, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences. At least 24 New Zealand students and a similar number of European post-graduates will take part in the exchange programme. Steve Maharey says it will enable New Zealand students to bring home valuable international knowledge. If New Zealand is to be a birthplace of world-changing people and ideas, we need to provide more opportunities for our emerging knowledge leaders to interact with other leading thinkers from around the world. The government is contributing $200,000 annually for three years to the pilot programme. New Zealand students who take part will visit no less than two of the programme's four EU partner institutions and spend up to a year in Europe. top Emeritus Professor Bob Park 1933-2004 Internationally renowned earthquake engineer Emeritus Professor Robert (Bob) Park died suddenly last week at the age of 71. A funeral service for Professor Park was held at the University Staff Club on Wednesday. Vice-Chancellor Professor Roy Sharp said the University community was greatly saddened by the death of Professor Park."He had a distinguished career in civil engineering and was internationally renowned for his work with structural concrete and earthquake engineering."
Page 2 of 16 Long time friend and colleague, Emeritus Professor Tom Paulay said he had the pleasure of working side by side with Professor Park for 40 years. They were together on a walk when Professor Park collapsed. I felt privileged that I could stand by him when he died. The University was fortunate to have such a gifted man. He was an excellent administrator, an excellent researcher and an excellent scholar. One of his most defining features was his total dedication to the University. Nothing mattered more to him than the past, present and future of the University so it is appropriate that he is farewelled from University grounds. Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Professor Andy Buchanan said Professor Park will be missed by his friends and colleagues in the department. Bob Park was a wonderful people's person and a meticulous manager. He did a terrific job for the Department of Civil Engineering in the 15 years he was head. He is fondly remembered, particularly by his graduate students Bob's boys as they used to call themselves and there were close to 50 of them over his academic career. Professor Park was born in Fiji, receiving his initial education in Suva.He studied at the then Canterbury University College, receiving a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in civil engineering in 1956 and a Master of Engineering with distinction in 1958. In 1964 he completed a PhD at the University of Bristol. He returned to the University of Canterbury as a senior lecturer in 1965, becoming a professor in 1968. He was head of the Department of Civil Engineering from 1978 to 1992 and served as deputy vice-chancellor from1993 to his retirement in 1999. In 2001 Professor Park was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering by the University of Canterbury. In the citation, Dean of Engineering Professor Alex Sutherland said Professor Park 's work in earthquake engineering had resulted in a whole new technical vocabulary which was now common civil engineering terms. He had a very strong influence on the development and writing of the first New Zealand Concrete Code.This code is considered by many people abroad as the Rolls Royce of codes.it has significantly influenced worldwide structural practice, particularly in the United States, Europe, Japan, China and South America. From the 1980s onwards, Professor Park focused on how to build better seismic-resistant buildings using prestressed concrete and studied what could be done for pre-1980 buildings and bridges to improve their performance in an earthquake. Under his insight and leadership the engineering profession has answered these questions and so ensured the integrity of many important, pre-1980, structures. The Christchurch Cathedral and the Provincial Chambers are examples, said Professor Sutherland. Professor Park played an active role in the affairs of the engineering profession. He served as President of the New Zealand Prestressed Concrete Institute (1975-77), President of the New Zealand National Society for Earthquake Engineering (1983-85) and Executive Vice-President of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering (1996-2000). Professor Park also played a crucial leadership role in education. He was a member of the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors' Committee Standing Committee on Research from 1991-98 and was a member of the Marsden Committee from 1996-98. He was chair of the Engineering, Technology and Architecture Panel of the Performance-Based Research Fund Quality Evaluation of the Tertiary Education Commission in 2003-04. His research resulted in two books, nine invited chapters in books and more than 300 technical
Page 3 of 16 papers. His major work Reinforced Concrete Structures written with Professor Paulay in 1975 has been translated into Spanish, Chinese and Indonesian. Over the years Professor Park received more than 20 prestigious awards from New Zealand and overseas. In 1978 he was the first civil engineer to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. In 1990 he became a Foreign Member of the Fellowship of Engineering of the United Kingdom for exception merit and distinction in the field of engineering. Other awards and honours included the Professional Commitment Award of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (1993); Charles S Whitney Medal of the American Concrete Institute (1994); honorary membership of the American Concrete Institute (1997), the medal of the International Federation of Structural Concrete (1997), R J Scott Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand (1997), Distinguished Fellowship of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (1998), University of Canterbury Research Medal (1998), Millennium Award of Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (2000), Honorary Award of the First Congress of the International Federation for Structural Concrete, Japan (2002), Award for Structural Engineering Excellence of the Structural Engineering Society of New Zealand (2003) and Meritorious Service Award from Standards New Zealand (2004). In 1995 the Queen awarded him an OBE in recognition of his services to civil engineering. Tributes have flown in from friends and colleagues from around the world. Bob was a great person, an excellent engineer, and a fantastic ambassador for New Zealand, said Nicholas Jones, Dean of the Whiting School of Engineering at John Hopkins University. The earthquake engineering community, as well as the civil engineering and broader engineering communities will miss him. From Australia, Arthur Crimp described Professor Park as a brilliant soul. We were contemporaneous, but he outshone us all, and was a jewel in the University of Canterbury 's crown. Bob was an inspiration to many in so many ways, said David Hopkins, a consulting engineer in Wellington. The world engineering community will miss him immensely, both as a person and a peerless contributor to earthquake engineering. Dr Jack Breen from the University of Texas described the late professor as a giant in the field and a wonderful human being besides. Professor Park is survived by his second wife Pauline and five children to his late wife, Kathy. top Canterbury beats best of Britain to take top honours In a nail bitting final UC civil engineering students came out winners of the 2004 Fletcher Construction MERIT Competition, beating more than 190 teams from the UK and Auckland. "What is significant about the win is that the top UC team consisting of five students beat 180 professional UK construction company teams taking part in the competition," adds Jason Le Masurier, lecturer and New Zealand event organiser. "All our teams performed incredibly well throughout the eight rounds of the MERIT Competition - the winner is the team with most points from a set of 10 key performance indicators. After an intense 7th round 'Team NAC' deservedly emerged as the top performing company, with a significant lead of more than 100 points over the winning UK team," says Dr Le Masurier. MERIT - an acronym for management, enterprise, risk, innovation and teamwork is an annual competition initiated by the UK Institution of Civil Engineers. Third year students taking ENCI