Muir Wood lecture
Sir Alan Muir Wood lecture
Sir Alan Muir Wood was born in 1921 and after a degree from Cambridge University, he joined the Royal Navy in 1942. In 1952, he joined Halcrow and Partners and worked first on design of small diameter rock and soft ground tunnels. He is especially remembered for his association to the history of the Channel Tunnel as he worked on the different projects since 1958.
In 1970, Sir Alan was the President of the OECD Conference on Tunnelling in Washington This was a “unique conference” as the goal was to advise governments on the policy which they should adopt for tunnelling. This conference is the starting point of ITA, as it first led nations to create their own tunnelling societies. In 1974 the ITA has been formed and Sir Alan was elected as its first President. IN 1977 at the end of his term he was then Honorary Life President. Until his death, he has been very active in ITA, attending the 25th anniversary in Oslo in 1999 and other WTCs.
After his death in 2009, ITA decided to create a Sir Alan Muir Wood Lecture. Each year at the WTC a chosen lecturer gives his view on tunnelling, following Sir Alan path who had a vision of Tunnelling. Sir Alan was pushing for innovation as a key for economy and safety in this special tunnelling world where uncertainty is a feature, which can be understood and controlled so that it does not cause any damaging risk
