Michael Dickson
CBE BA MS FREng FIStructE FICE HonFRIBA FRSA
Born 1944. Michael studied Mechanical Sciences at Cambridge followed by a post-graduate degree in structural engineering and town planning at Cornell University, New York. He is a founder of Buro Happold and was the practice's chairman for nine years until he relinquished the role at the end of April, 2005. He is the chairman of the Happold Trust and Visiting Professor of Engineering Design at Bath University School of Architecture and Civil Engineering. He was Chairman of the UK's Construction Industry Council from 2000 to 2002 and was also a Member of Lord Justice Taylor's working party on the safety of sports grounds, which paved the way for the redevelopment of UK football grounds. Michael is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In September, 2005 he took up the prestigious position of President of the Institution of Structural Engineers. In 2005 he was awarded the CBE for services to engineering.
For Michael, the breaking down of the traditional divisions between professional disciplines, is an issue close to his heart. He is a team player, a perfectionist who believes that the tension between order and turbulence is essential to the success of a design organisation. His interests lie in the relationship between academic research and construction, and especially in the application of research to real life engineering. He is fascinated by the potential for the wider use of many different new and traditional materials to form and transform the built environment. These pursuits together contribute to his ability to clarify issues, and find innovation in opportunities to bring together the culturally separate thinking streams that exist between art and science, theory and practice.
Michael stepped down from the Partnership at the end of April, 2006 and continues to take an active role in the practice as a consultant.
