Background

Alistair is Professor of Construction Engineering Management in the Department of Civil Engineering at Loughborough University. He joined the University in 1993, following a career in engineering and project management with John Laing, Taylor Woodrow and Sir Robert McAlpine. Since 1993 he has developed a significant portfolio of funded research projects alongside the management of the sponsored Construction Engineering management degree and substantial teaching responsibilities. In 2004 he was awarded a personal chair following achieving his doctorate in construction innovation, by the publications route in 2001.

Alistair has a significant research portfolio, winning more than £1.7 million funding in the last six years which represents projects of a value of over £4 million. He leads the construction management group in Loughborough’s Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMCRC) which provides platform funding for innovative research. His projects formed a major part of the track-record which lead to the award of the IMCRC. Alistair’s work falls primarily into two main areas: health and safety and offsite production.

In offsite production, Alistair was bid author and sole academic partner in the prestigious Pii prOSPa Programme and it’s follow-on ‘buildoffsite’, securing for Loughborough a primary role in this important area. He continues to support the UK Government in their efforts to implement offsite production as part of the post-Egan drive for increased efficiency and was a member of the CRISP (Construction Industry Research and Information Strategy panel) panel on construction manufacture. He led the UK Trade and Industry delegation on its ‘offsite’ trade mission to Malaysia in January 2005.

In the health and safety area, Alistair is Director of the APaCHe partnership for construction health and safety, working closely with the HSE and industrial collaborators and maintaining a leading role in UK, European and international networks in health and safety. Since 1995 he has been project director of the European Construction Institute’s Safety, Health and Environment task force. He has been a member of numerous committees and task groups including the Association of Project Safety (co-opted board member).

Internationally, Alistair has been active with the Conseil International de Batiment (cib) working commissions on health and safety and industrialisation, (serving as a commissioner); ICBEST (the international council for building envelope); ISSA (International Social Security Association). He serves on the WSIB (Canadian Workplace Safety & Insurance Board) Research Advisory Council. This work has all been in close collaboration with industry and this is a significant feature in Alistair’s academic career. He has also collaborated with a number of other academics, within the Civil & Building Engineering Department, in other Loughborough departments and from other institutions. He currently leads a team of seven full time research associates, both Post-Grad and Post-Doc, as well as supervising 5 full time and 3 Part time PhD students, 2 EngD Research Engineers and being Director of Research for more than 20 PhD candidates.

Alistair is director of the Construction Engineering Management programme, with its sponsoring consortium of 13 major construction organisations. In addition to the normal administration tasks this has involved the management of this group of industrialists, seeking to match their expectations with the available applicants and nurturing their continuing collaboration throughout the university course. Alistair has also developed his academic track record, publishing more than 30 refereed journal papers, more than 80 refereed conference papers authoring and editing more than 20 books and major reports, as well as editing 7 conference proceedings. He has chaired a major international conference and served on many scientific committees. He is regularly invited to present keynote papers at both industrial and academia-focussed international and national conferences.

Broad Interests and Expertise

Construction management – in particular innovative strategies and techniques including offsite production and freeform construction
Health and safety in construction
High performance cladding of buildings
Research Interests

Offsite production and freeform construction
Health and safety
Facades and cladding
Research Group

Construction Management