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Emeritus Professor, Civil Engineering, University of Warwick

After a short spell in industry, Wanda Lewis joined the University of Warwick in 1986 where she is based to this day. She is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Engineering, a chartered engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her 30 years of research experience is reflected in her monograph Tension Structures: Form and Behaviour, numerous research articles, and press releases. She is a pioneer of form-finding methods that predict optimal shapes of building and bridges, as a function of statistically prevalent loads (a feature observed in natural structures).
Wanda has led a number of national and European research projects in collaboration with industry (Arup, Jaguar, Roll-Royce, SL-Rach, Canobbio ) as well as a multi-disciplinary project: Designing for the 21st Century in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Art, London http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/design21/ .
Her interest in natural structural forms goes beyond flexible tension structures (such as cable nets and membrane roofing forms), to rigid-type engineering components used in automotive, aerospace, and biomedical engineering applications.
Her current research concerns natural form of arch bridges.

Experience

  • –present
    Professor of Structural Engineering, University of Warwick