Professor Anusha Shah the President of ICE visited the museum on 3 September. Professors Paul Jowitt and Roland Paxton in the company of Professor Muhammed Basheer (head of EGIS at Heriot-Watt University) introduced her to a number of our more interesting exhibits including the Forth Bridge Hydraulic riveter, the Queensferry Crossing model and the portraits of Thomas Grainger and John Miller. Of particular interest were our colloidal concrete exhibits where Professor Dr Gabriela Medero was invited to talk about her specially invented bricks which offer significant advantages over those of more traditional manufacture.

.Standing in the main museum area beside the Forth Bridge riveter, from left to right: Professor Muhammed Basheer, Professor Paul Jowitt, Professor Anusha Shah and Professor Roland Paxton.

Later Professor Paxton presented Professor Shah with a copy of his book ‘Dynasty of Engineers’ published by the Northern Lighthouse Heritage Trust in 2011 with the label below attached.

On the next day (4 September) Professor Shah attended the John Smeaton International Symposium on Innovations in Civil Engineering held at Heriot-Watt University to celebrate the 300th birth of John Smeaton – the “father” of civil engineering. At the symposium Professor Paxton gave the keynote presentation (see smeaton_legacy_of_an_innovator.

For fuller details of the symposium see https://smeaton2024.site.hw.ac.uk/people/.