Richard's first-hand experience of seeing the trauma and damage after major earthquakes has convinced him the impact of these disasters can be reduced by implementing simple and inexpensive measures at the time of construction.
The last 30 years has taken Richard's career from the theoretical to leading the development of a national building code for Nepal. An example of the kind of project he undertakes is analysing European nuclear power stations for earthquakes and aircraft impact; done when he was based in France.
As a specialist in earthquake engineering, Richard feels that visiting the sites of recent destructive earthquakes and seeing the look in the eyes of the survivors gives him all the motivation needed to want to build structures more resilient to earthquakes.
In 1999, Richard led a group of New Zealand engineers, geologist and civil defence personnel to Turkey, a few weeks after a devastating earthquake, to learn as much as possible to take back to NZ. Since then, he has won several projects in Istanbul and in the region. These include the review of the Romanian earthquake strengthening building code and specialist seismic work on a massive aircraft hangar at Istanbul's new Sabiha Gocken airport. His involvement in Turkey has enabled Beca to develop strong relationships with local consultancies and leading engineers in this region.
Being part of multi-disciplinary team at Beca has been very important to Richard, providing rewarding experiences and niche roles in some very big and complex projects in cities such as Delhi, Bucharest, Istanbul, Teheran, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jakarta and Islamabad.
Richard is a Past President and Fellow of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering and has been a keynote speaker at international earthquake conferences in Turkey, British Columbia, India and Nepal, as well as in New Zealand. In 2007, Richard was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand in recognition of his earthquake engineering contributions.
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