Citation on the award of NZSEE Fellow, April 2022
Helen Ferner has a long and distinguished career in Earthquake Engineering and Structural Engineering, both within New Zealand and Internationally. Helen graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury in 1982 and joined NZSEE in 1983. After a period working as a structural engineer, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study a Masters degree at the University in California Berkeley in 1986. She then worked at Rutherford + Chekene, where she undertook the design of large institutional-type buildings including hospitals and schools. She undertook a significant amount of work on strengthening many significant historic structures for clients following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Shortly after the Northridge earthquakes, Helen worked with the California Seismic Safety Commission to develop recommendations for changes to their design codes based on the lessons learned from building performance in the earthquake.
Helen returned to New Zealand in late 1994, where she worked as a Structural Engineer for Beca, becoming a Technical Director. Helen has extensive experience in structural design and earthquake engineering, where she has been a strong advocate for good design practice and resilient structural designs that go beyond a code-minimum.
Helen has contributed significantly to the profession and to NZSEE specifically. She was part of the NZSEE 2016 reconnaissance team after the Kumamoto earthquake and has published papers in the Bulletin and presented at NZSEE conferences over many years.
Helen joined the NZSEE Management Committee in 2018 after acting as the Conference Convenor for the 2018 NZSEE Technical Conference. This conference in Auckland included the 50th anniversary celebrations for NZSEE. Helen was appointed President-Elect in 2019, joining the Executive Team and taking over from David Whittaker as President in April 2020.
Helen has committed an extensive amount of time and effort to her role on the NZSEE Executive Team, being heavily involved in the development of the 2020 NZSEE Webinar Series that was held in-lieu of the physical conference, as well as the significant challenges that existed following the conference cancellation. She has shepherded the society through the Covid-19 pandemic, developing contingency plans for both the 2021 and 2022 NZSEE conferences. These years have been especially challenging and administratively burdensome and Helen has made significant personal sacrifices to ensure the success of the Society through this period.
Helen strongly stands by the principles of working together and brings in values from other societies (SESOC/NZGS) and key agencies such as MBIE, to address challenges. She is driven to bring diversified views and input to the growth of the society, and has been a keen advocate in keeping women engaged in the NZSEE. Helen has also been a strong mentor and role model for young female engineers, undertaking informal mentoring roles for young structural engineers. Helen also led the development of the Women Leaders in Earthquake Engineering award to encourage early-to-mid career women to remain within the profession.
In addition to her service role on the ManCom, Helen is also leading the EQC-funded and NZSEE-led Resilient Buildings Project. She has obtained full external funding from EQC for this project, enabling NZSEE to provide guidance and leadership on the understanding of societal expectations and the motivation for structural designs that provide increased seismic resilience. This project provides NZSEE with the opportunity to take a national leadership role in rethinking the framework for New Zealand’s earthquake standards and design approach going forward.
Overall, through her service to the profession as a structural engineer, and through her significant and ongoing service to NZSEE, Helen is acknowledged with the award of Fellowship of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering.