Citation on the award of Life Membership, April 2023
Desmond Kenneth Bull is a New Zealand earthquake engineer who has made major contributions in structural engineering practice, academia, and post-earthquake response.
Des completed a Master of Engineering degree at University of Canterbury in 1984. Over the next 5 years he gained practical experience in consultancy practices before joining Cement & Concrete Association as a structural engineer. In 1993 Des took up a Cement & Concrete Association Fellowship at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Canterbury teaching and conducting research on concrete structures, materials, seismic assessment and retrofit. In 1996 he became Technical Director at Holmes Consulting Group, Christchurch, while maintaining university involvement. In 2000, while still at Holmes, Des was appointed the Holcim Adjunct Professor in Concrete Design at the University of Canterbury. Here he brought together teaching, research and practice, thereby benefiting students, academics, and practitioners. His work played a crucial role in shaping the profession. This was cemented by his authorship of structural design manuals used by both students and practitioners.
As an academic in the classroom, he inspired students with anecdotes about real projects and situations giving them a sense of engineering coming to life. As a researcher he worked with many students and practitioners to solve a wide range of real world problems. Des has not been afraid of taking on important, but unpopular topics. Amongst many other things, he emphasized concrete curing, to make sure the concrete behaves as expected. His work on floor diaphragms has, and continues to lead the world. It has resulted in major changes in practice in New Zealand. Des has conducted research and provided reality checks regarding low-damage/resilient system implementation. Des has formally disseminated his findings for over 30 years by regularly presenting at industry training seminars, conferences, contributing to the New Zealand Standards for Concrete Structures and Seismic Design Actions, aspects of the NZSEE Earthquake Assessment Guidelines, authoring or editing many widely used national and international guidance publications, as well as by academic publications. Informally, he has described his findings individually to many engineering students and engineers, acting as a role model exemplifying attitudes of care, life-long learning, and problem solving. Des’s character, enormous passion and enthusiasm for just plain good engineering, and forthright discussions to address and solve practice issues have influenced many to go on and become good structural engineers.
Des was a member of the MBIE Engineering Advisory Group, the DBH Precast Floor Overview Group, and the SESOC flange hung Double Tee Floor study group. He has acted as Chairman of the NZS 3101: Concrete Structures Standard Review Committee, and President of the NZ Concrete Society. Des received the 1986 Prestressed Concrete Institute—Martin P. Korn Award, 1997 IPENZ – Freyssinet Award, 2002 NZ Concrete Society – Sandy Cormack Award, 2004 New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering – Otto Glogau Award. Des’s commitment to professional excellence over many years has been widely recognised. He is a Life Member of the Structural Engineering Society New Zealand (SESOC), and Honorary Member of the New Zealand Concrete Society and a Fellow of Engineering NZ.
In addition to this, over the past 20 years Des has significantly contributed to New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue operational capability by training USAR personnel. His leadership was fundamental to the effective USAR response to the 22 February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.
All the above mentioned achievements make Des a worthy recipient of Life Membership of the New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering.