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One of Australia's most influential engineers and the man behind the iconic Beijing Water Cube will deliver the 27th Dr George Hondros Memorial Lecture at The University of Western Australia next week.

Tristram Carfrae, an award-winning structural engineer, director and Arup Fellow, is one of the world's leading designers of sporting stadiums and lightweight long-span structures.  His impressive range of projects includes the Water Cube, which was built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the Helix Bridge in Singapore and the AAMI Stadium in Melbourne.

His lecture, to be delivered next Thursday 24 October, will be on "Unique designs - the power of multidisciplinary collaboration."

The lecture honours Dr George Hondros, who was for many years a senior member of staff of the UWA's Department of Civil Engineering - now the School of Civil and Resource Engineering.  Dr Hondros was highly respected by his peers and an acknowledged leader in his profession.  His input into the Narrows Bridge project as a structural engineer became his major legacy to Western Australia.

London-based Mr Carfrae, named as one of Australia's Top 100 most influential engineers, is known for his creative style of engineering.  He has a reputation for challenging the established ways of doing things and exploring better solutions.  He strives to design better buildings that consume less materials, energy, time and money, but also provide pleasure and improved amenities.

In 2006 he was appointed as a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) by The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in recognition of his achievements in engineering design.

In his lecture, Mr Carfrae will discuss several projects he has helped design over the past 30 years which illustrate how architects, engineers and, in some cases, contractors work together to produce unique designs.

The Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics has invited members of the Dr George Hondros Memorial Fund, alumni and students to this special lecture, but also welcomes interested members of the public.

"I am delighted that during UWA's centenary year our Faculty welcomes another talented engineer, Tristram Carfrae, to present this memorial lecture," John Dell, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics said. "Tristram's portfolio includes an impressive body of work both here in Australia and internationally, much of it representing breakthroughs in technology innovation and multidisciplinary collaboration."

• The 27 ^th Dr George Hondros Memorial Lecture will be held at The University Club Theatre Auditorium (enter off Hackett Drive and use car park 3) at 6pm, Thursday 24 October.
• RSVP by Friday 18 October.

Media references

Clara Dodman (Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics)  (+61 8)  6488 5079
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783