Keynote Speakers
Agnieszka Bigaj-van Vliet
Dr.ir. Agnieszka Bigaj-van Vliet is a senior expert in the field of safety and sustainability of concrete structures. She holds a PhD in civil engineering from the Delft University of Technology, and has worked for over 25 years at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). Agnieszka coordinates several research programs, including research on sustainable concrete structures with circular solutions, climate adaptability and resilience, and data-informed assessment supported by Structural Health Monitoring. She is also strongly involved in national and international standardization activities and in high-end consultancy projects of TNO. Agnieszka is a member of the Presidium and the Technical Council of the International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib), the Head of the Dutch National Delegation to fib, Deputy-Convener of the fib Task Group Model Code for Structural Concrete, and Convener of fib SAG Task Group Sustainable Concrete Structures. She is also a member of subcommittee 318-L of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 318-25, Structural Concrete Building Code.
Steve Denton
Dr. Steve Denton is an executive director and head of Civil Engineering of WSP United Kingdom. He leads a unit of over 600 civil/structural engineering professionals and heads the technical excellence function for the 9000 UK staff. He has chaired the CEN/TC 250 Eurocodes committee since 2013, leading the development of second-generation technical standards for structural and geotechnical engineers across Europe and the UK.
He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Bath for 15 years and has published on numerous topics within structural engineering.
Steve was elected for a three year term as Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineer in 2023. He is serving on the current fib presidium.
Laura Lowes
Dr. Laura Lowes is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington. Her research seeks to advance structural engineering, and earthquake engineering in particular, through the development and application of numerical simulation in combination laboratory testing and field data collection.
Her research has resulted in a number of component models that are appropriate for use in simulating the earthquake response of buildings and bridges, including models that simulate the nonlinear response of concrete beam-column joints, columns, and walls as well as steel plates in SPSWs. These models are implemented in the OpenSees analysis platform to enable use by the research community.
Currently, Dr. Lowes holds leadership roles in three NSF-sponsored Natural Hazard Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) facilities: the NHERI Simulation Center, the Design-Safe Cyber-Infrastructure facility, and the Post-Disaster Rapid Response Research (RAPID) facility as well as the recently established University of Washington Center for Disaster Resilient Communities.
Dr. Lowes is the former University of Washington Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Chair and Conner Professor.
She is the recipient of the ASCE Moisseiff Award and the PCI George Nasser Award as well as a co-author on an EERI Outstanding Earthquake Spectra Paper.
Xilin Lu
Dr. Xilin Lu is a distinguished professor of Civil Engineering at Tongji University, Shanghai, China. He received his Ph D. degree in Structural Engineering at Tongji University in 1984, and worked as a visiting scholar at the University of Alberta in 1990, and as a research associate at the University of Hong Kong in 1992. His main research areas include dynamic testing, seismic analysis and design, and vibration control of tall buildings under wind and seismic actions. He was a recipient of Nathan M. Newmark Medal by ASCE in 2017. He was elected as a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2019, elected as an International Fellow of the Engineering Academy of Japan in 2021, and elected as a member of European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2022. He is currently the Chief Editors of two prestigious SCI-indexed Journals: “The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings”, and “Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering”.
Des Bull
Des is a Technical Director of Holmes NZ LP. His duties involve the development of structural engineering services for the company, with an emphasis on concrete structures (commercial buildings and bridges) and the performance of concrete materials in a variety of environments and in‑service conditions. He is a Chartered Professional Engineer in NZ and has practised for 42 years.
Des was the Holcim Adjunct Professor in Concrete Design for 26 years, at the Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, retiring from that role is 2019. Des lectured on the design of structures, with a specialisation in concrete buildings.
Des is a Distinguished Fellow of Engineering NZ, a Past President and an Honorary Member of the NZ Concrete Society, Life Member of the Structural Engineering Society NZ, Life Member of the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering, and has served on the Revision Code Committees for NZS 3101: Concrete Structures and NZS 1170.5: Earthquake Loads. He has written or co-written some 200 papers and 8 design guidelines/manuals.