Tom Dale

Since graduating in 2013 with a first-class bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Warwick, Tom has pursued a career in fire safety and risk management. His first position was as a Safety Engineer at DNV, completing quantitative risk assessments, estimating the likelihood and consequence of potential fire and explosion events within onshore, offshore and floating assets in the Oil & Gas industry. Results from these assessments allowed clients to evaluate the fire and explosion risk arising from their sites, to support design decisions ensuring compliance with legislative requirements. Whilst at DNV, Tom also acted as an environmental auditor for the Safety Health and Environmental (SHE) audit team. Tom completed several site investigation, land remediation and gasholder demolition projects in the UK to support managing onsite hazards. This also provided Tom with experience in conducting health and safety investigations of lost time injury incidents, which can occur at construction sites. Tom began a part-time Masters in Fire and Explosion Engineering at the University of Leeds, balancing work and studies for three years, before graduating with a Distinction in 2017. His dissertation involved research into ‘boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions’ (BLEVE), specifically involving liquified propane gas (LPG) aiming to further […]

James Clarke

James is a fire investigator specialising in fire engineering design, fire safety management and fire risk assessment. Since graduating from The University of Huddersfield in 2017 with a first-class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering, James has worked in a number of industry sectors across project management, mechanical engineering, and fire safety engineering. James’ degree covered a range of topics, including Mechanical Design, Manufacturing, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Finite Element Analysis, and Business Management. When given the option to specialise, James focused on a live industrial dissertation subject covering asset utilisation and six sigma manufacturing techniques, coupled with technical assessment on the design and analysis of helicopter landing gear and the optimal design of trailer aerodynamic devices. During his time at university, James also held a project engineering position with a Yorkshire based pharmaceutical company where he assisted with the development and introduction of new production and packaging facilities. James quickly developed the ability to assess both products and components involved with flammable and explosive environments, advising the internal engineering and Health & Safety teams. As part of a summer internship, James continued in operations development with a national telecommunications company, to help increase efficiency in maintenance processes and data analysis. During […]

Rob Baldock

Rob graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 with first-class B.A. and MEng degrees focused on structural and mechanical engineering. In collaboration with Arup, he completed his PhD in 2007, investigating the application of structural optimisation to building design. Rob then worked in Arup’s London Buildings Group for more than 6 years on diverse local and international projects in various sectors. These included long-span and transfer structures, deep basements, and tensile fabric roofs. Rob also has practical site experience, working on secondment to the contractor at Canary Wharf Crossrail Station and as resident engineer on a school construction in the Indian Himalayas. Rob is very experienced in structural glass design, having spent over 6 years at Eckersley O’Callaghan, where he was involved with iconic and pioneering projects associated with façade systems. He has managed the design of glazing systems on a number of international flagship Apple stores, including the hemispherical Marina Bay Sands store in Singapore, and has lead collaborations with major glazing contractors. He was also the lead engineer for a pair of complex pedestrian bridge structures, linking office buildings over a public highway. Rob joined Hawkins’ Built Environment Team in early 2022 with 14 years of building design experience working as […]

Ian Major

Ian started his career working for Aspen Burrow Crocker on a variety of civil engineering projects. He was involved in the design of numerous highway and infrastructure schemes, waste transfer stations and the Thameslink rail project. He has also spent time supervising construction work on site including a year working at wastewater treatment plants. In 1999, Ian joined Hyder Consulting where he spent 11 years working predominantly on the design and project management of major infrastructure projects including the N5 in Ireland, the A2 widening in Kent and the A421 improvements in Bedfordshire. Ian joined Hawkins in 2010, specialising in the investigation of property damage and personal injuries involving civil engineering and building incidents. He is also an experienced fire investigator, having investigated over 200 fires including major and complex losses in domestic, commercial and industrial premises. In his specialist field of engineering, Ian has determined the causes of a wide range of losses from small domestic claims of water ingress through to catastrophic building collapses. Other examples of incidents that Ian has investigated include wall failures, subsidence, flooding and problems associated with ground-borne vibration. Much of this work has involved advising on matters in relation to the requirements of […]

Rosalind Lambert-Porter

Rosalind is an acoustics consultant with degrees in both Audiology and Acoustics. With consulting experience in the United Kingdom, Africa and Australia, she has had a varied career in different sectors from vibration monitoring in mining and creation of hearing conservation programmes through to environmental noise impact and school acoustics design. Her particular area of interest, given her background in both hearing science and noise control, is in acoustics in the workplace with a focus on the impact of noise on wellbeing. Ros held the post of Regional Manager in our Cambridge Office before becoming Managing Director of Hawkins Acoustics Consultancy. She is currently located at our London Office.

Andrew Reeves

Andrew graduated from Cambridge University in 1992 with a first class degree in Engineering Science, specialising in geotechnics, structures and materials. He was sponsored by Ove Arup & Partners both before and during university gaining over a years’ worth of experience on site and in the design office. On graduation he joined Arup’s geotechnical division in London and then spent the next 7 years in London, Berlin and Hong Kong on the design and site-supervision of large infrastructure projects such as Canary Wharf towers, Merrill Lynch HQ, Berlin Velodrome and Swimming Pool and The Centre, HK. During this time Andrew specialised in the design and construction of deep basements, retaining walls and foundations using diaphragm walls and large diameter piles. He also studied for a master’s degree in Soil Mechanics at Imperial College, with his thesis on the effects of rising groundwater on bored piles in London, graduating with a distinction. In 1999 Andrew joined a strategy consultancy, Mars & Co, where he carried out numerous projects on behalf of blue-chip companies in UK, Turkey, USA and France. In 2007 Andrew formed his own company carrying out both business and engineering consultancy projects for a range of clients. He expanded […]

Too Hot! Keep your Cool with Part O

In an effort to mitigate the effects of climate change, the government published Approved Document Part O, which provides guidance for complying with the new Part O of the Building Regulations.

Full Numerical Analysis Part 3: Application to the Forensic Investigation of Geotechnical Incidents

With the rapid advancement of computer technology, full numerical modelling is now routinely carried out in geotechnical engineering.

Full Numerical Analysis Part 2: Application to Forensic Investigation

With the rapid advancement of computer technology, full numerical modelling is now routinely carried out in geotechnical engineering. However, producing a full numerical model is not straightforward; if the numerical analysis is not applied correctly, the output can lead to defective design and ensuing failure.

Hawkins’ Built Environment Team Members Attend the Society of Construction Law Spring Conference

On Friday 4th March, two members of Hawkins’ Built Environment Team will be attending the annual Society of Construction Law (SCL) Spring Conference at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. Forensic Architect Niralee Casson, and Fire Engineer James Clarke, are both looking forward to it.