John Roberts (engineer)

{{short description|British structural engineer}}

{{other people|John Roberts}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}

{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}

{{Infobox engineer

| name = John Roberts

| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FREng|FIStructE|FICE|FCGI}}

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| birth_name = John Maxwell Roberts

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| birth_place = Bristol, England

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| education=University of Sheffield

|practice_name = Jacobs Engineering Group

|significant_projects = London Eye
British Airways i360
Big One (roller coaster)

|significant_awards = IStructE Gold Medal

}}

John Maxwell Roberts is a British structural engineer. He was president of the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) from 2003-2004 and the 2005 recipient of their Gold Medal.

Early life and education

Roberts was born in Bristol. He graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BEng (1969) and a PhD (1972) in Civil & Structural Engineering.{{cite web|title=Sheffield Alumni|date=30 November 2021|url=https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/alumni/our_alumni/outstanding#DrJohnRoberts}}

Career

After his PhD, Roberts worked on motorway interchanges with McAlpine & Sons then in 1974 moved to Bertram Done & Partners and soon after to Allott & Lomax in Manchester as a design engineer. It was there where he worked on Big One (roller coaster). Babtie took over Allott & Lomax in 2000 and Jacobs took over Babtie in 2004.{{cite web|title=Babtie engineers sell-out to US giant |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12504664.babtie-engineers-sell-out-to-us-giant-scottish-group-poised-to-surrender-independence/ }} Since then Roberts has been Director of Operations at Jacobs Engineering Group.

Roberts was responsible for the engineering of the London Eye and British Airways i360{{cite web|title=Profile: Dr John Roberts, The Structural Engineer|url=https://www.istructe.org/getattachment/9e019dd3-d59a-498b-a076-5b4c30fe0afa/Profile.pdf}}

Awards and honours

Roberts was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 2005 and an Hon DEng by the University of Sheffield in 2006.

References