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(L-R) Victor Pavanelli Lira, Joe Roper and Kit Wolverson, the finalists of this year’s James Rennie Medal.

Joe Roper, Arkwright Alumnus has won this years' James Rennie Medal. Joe's journey into engineering was set early on when he was named an Arkwright Scholar in 2011, under the sponsorship of Balfour Beatty. Reflecting on this pivotal moment in his career, Joe acknowledges the solid foundation it provided for his subsequent successes.

The James Rennie Medal, is an esteemed accolade in the realm of engineering, it’s awarded to the best Chartered Professional Review candidate of the year. This year’s final featured ICE’s top three Chartered Professional Review (CPR) and CPR (Progressive) candidates of 2023. They each presented and defended their CPR reports to an audience. Joe’s commitment and talent shone through, propelling him to emerge as one of the top three candidates out of approximately 1000 applicants for the award. Roper was awarded the prize for presenting his journey to successfully achieving a contract incentive milestone involving deep foundation installation in the HS2 Area North Project in 2022, leading to the successful delivery of a 72-day rail blockade amidst several challenges.

Joining Joe as finalists were Kit Wolverson, a senior engineer at Mott MacDonald, and Victor Pavanelli Lira, a senior dam engineer at Stantec. Wolverson shared their experiences working on transformative projects such as the Nyabihunyira Trailbridge in Rwanda and the Northern Powerhouse Rail. Meanwhile, Pavanelli Lira presented their innovative design work on a large pumped hydro storage scheme in the UK.

Joe’s presentation and report highlighted the challenges he faced and the valuable lessons he learned that, he believes, shaped him as a civil engineer. Read more about the award here: www.ice.org.uk/news-insight/news-and-blogs/latest-news/news/james-rennie-medal-winner-2024