Alan Harris (engineer)

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Sir Alan Harris (born July 8, 1916 , † December 26, 2000 ) was a British civil engineer and pioneer of prestressed concrete in England.

Life

His father was an electrical engineer in the British Royal Navy. He started working at the age of 16 while studying engineering in the evening classes at Northampton Engineering College. During the Second World War he enlisted in the Navy and the Royal Engineers, received training as a diver in a unit that dumped explosive charges, and on D-Day was in a commando unit that organized the installation of a Mulberry port with the help of French fishing boats. For this he received the Croix de Guerre . In 1946 he was released from the military, but later stayed with the Royal Engineers in Homeland Security, where he became a colonel.

With his release from the army, he went to Paris to Eugène Freyssinet , the reinforced concrete pioneer. He was employed by this and in 1949 its representative in England. As there was a shortage of steel in post-war England, as in other countries, there was a good market for prestressed concrete.

In 1955 he went into business for himself with an engineering office. He founded Harris & Sutherland with James Sutherland and his brother John. Among other things, they designed aircraft hangars for Heathrow and Gatwick airports. They later expanded their program to include infrastructure projects and had offices in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

He married a French woman and had two sons.

In 1984 he received the gold medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers , of which he was also president. He was Vice President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Professor of Concrete at Imperial College London . In 1980 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor .

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personal data
SURNAME Harris, Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1916
DATE OF DEATH December 26, 2000