Newly appointed President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Professor Paul Jowitt, returned to Scotland this week for a series of events to mark the beginning of his 12 month tenure as President.
Scotland’s top civil engineer, President Jowitt, who is also the ISSUES Project’s Principal Investigator, celebrated ‘the proudest moment of his career’ on November 2nd, becoming the institution’s 145th president.
The first item on the new President’s agenda was a visit to Scottish Water’s water treatment works at Glencorse. After a blustery day on site to monitor the progress of the massive regeneration and modernisation project, President Jowitt hosted a dinner in the capital for ICE’s Scottish members. Joining him as a speaker at the dinner was the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, and member for Banff and Buchan, Stewart Stephenson MSP.
Heriot Watt students Lily Pozzeti and Rita O Neill with President Jowitt
President Jowitt then returned to Heriot Watt University, where he is Professor of Civil Engineering Systems, to judge a poster competition for 1st year engineering students. President Jowitt has been particularly vocal in championing the input of young engineering talent and one of his first acts as president was to expand the President’s Apprentice Initiative to allow more youngsters to take part.
President Jowitt with the winners
He said: ‘Civil engineering has a crucial role in how the world will tackle contemporary challenges such as climate change, natural and man made disasters, and economic crises and one important way to secure the knowledge to carry us through these challenges is by fostering young talent. Scotland has a tradition of producing great engineers and I hope this event will help encourage the next generation of talented Scottish professionals.’
The ICE’s new president then made the traditional Graduate and Students presidential address in the capital before rounding up his busy week with a day of events and a formal dinner in Glasgow.
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