NEWS
A discussion dinner was held on Tuesday, 19th March 2024 at which the topic of the reality of cyber warfare was debated. Click here for a report of the discussions.
The 2024 Smeaton Lecture was given by First Class member Professor Ric Parker on the topic of "John Smeaton, mechanical engineer - rotating machinery, history and legacy" on 16th July 2024 at the Institution of Civil Engineers and online. Click here to read a summary and view the lecture. An informal dinner was held after the discussion.
A discussion dinner was held on Wednesday, 22nd May 2024 at which the topic of encouraging young people into engineering was debated. Click here for a report of the discussions.
2024 is the 300th Anniversary of the birth of John Smeaton. Click here for details of some of the events that the Society has been made aware of.
The society held a dinner to welcome new members of the Society on 24th January 2024 at the Institution of Civil Engineers. Click here for a list of current members.
Mr Tony Roche has been elected President of the Society for 2024.
The 2023 Smeaton Lecture was given by First Class member Professor Peter Guthrie on the topic of "Sustainable development: from Smeaton to the 21st century" on 11th December 2023 at the Institution of Civil Engineers and online. Click here to read a summary and view the lecture. An informal dinner was held after the discussion.
The Society held its AGM on 29th November 2023, following which it held a dinner at which member HRH The Princess Royal presented the Smeaton Medal to this year's winner.
The 2023 Smeaton medal has been awarded to Helen Wild of Sellafield, continuing the theme of engineering in hostile environments for her work on managing risk decommissioning the UK's nuclear legacy. A report on the presentation and ensuing discussion dinner can be found here.
The Society held its annual luncheon at the RAF Club in Piccadilly on 26th October. First Class member and Past President Sir John Armitt briefed members on the recently published National Infrastructure Assessment.
The Society of Civil Engineers was founded in 1771 by John Smeaton and some of his professional acquaintances as a dining club to facilitate ‘conversation, argument and a social communication of ideas and knowledge, in the particular walks of each member were, at the same time, the amusement and business of the meetings’. The Society met in London once a fortnight, at 7 o’clock from Christmas to the end of the sitting of Parliament.
The Society was the first to adopt the name ‘civil engineer’ as a new profession, as distinct from the much older calling of military engineer. Following the death of Smeaton in 1792 the Society was revived as the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers. The Society is the oldest society of engineers in the world and embraces engineers of all disciplines. It predates the Institution of Civil Engineers founded in 1818. Members are known as ‘The Smeatonians’
