Scotsman Obituaries: Professor Michael Rotter, visionary structural engineer and academic

An academic like Michael, however, never truly retires. He had several projects lined up for what would no doubt have been a very fruitful period of his life. There were books and collaborative papers he wanted to write, loose ends to tie up on active projects and court cases to ace as an expert witness. But above all, he looked forward to spending more time with family and friends, listening to his beloved classical music, and enjoying life at his country home in Burgundy, where he loved to drive his tractor, savour delicious French wines and speak fluent French.

Born on 31 October 1948 in Chesterfield, England, into a family with a strong engineering tradition, Michael graduated from the University of Cambridge with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970 and a Master of Arts Degree in 1976, having developed a lifelong passion for structural mechanics. He then moved to the University of Sydney and completed a PhD in 1978 on the behaviour of continuous composite columns under the guidance of Professor John Roderick.

Michael began his academic career as a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at Sydney University before being appointed Professor of Civil Engineering and the Head of Department of Civil Engineering and Building Science at the University of Edinburgh in 1989.

Under Michael’s leadership and vision, the department was transformed from an underperforming unit to become one of the top civil engineering departments in the UK. With the merging of departments that followed in 1992, he became the first Head of the Division of Engineering comprising the Chemical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering Disciplines.

Michael had a strong passion and commitment to teaching, with a remarkable ability to teach a difficult subject matter with clarity and humour. At Edinburgh, he was a very popular lecturer, developing and presenting courses ranging from the first year Engineering course to honours years courses in structural behaviour, structural form and design philosophy and a worldwide unique course dedicated to silos. The evidence can be discerned from the number of first year general engineering students choosing to switch to Civil Engineering in their second year having attended Michael’s lectures! He was a true inspiration to many cohorts of engineering graduates who remember him most fondly.

Throughout a distinguished career, Michael made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of thin-shell structures, silos and bulk solids storage structures, tanks, and wind turbine towers. His excellence was recognised with prestigious Fellowships of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Institution of Civil Engineers UK.

He was awarded the Charles Massonnet Award of the European Convention on Steel Structures in 2017 for his outstanding contribution to advancing the science of safe and economic design of metal structures. In addition, he was appointed the Royal Society Kan Tong Po Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2007. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2018. And he was a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London for many years.

While Michael published hundreds of academic papers, his most impactful and lasting legacy will be his visionary work on Australian and then Eurocode standardisation. In an age in which academics often focus on narrow “impact” metrics, Michael asked a bigger question: how do we achieve a real impact in our work? His answer was through standardisation – the development of design standards that are then used by millions of engineers worldwide to design structures that underpin modern life.

These standards ensure the safe storage of grains that feed nations, the integrity of vast bridges that connect communities, the resilience of wind turbines generating clean electricity in the North Sea, and virtually every aspect of the built environment.

Michael was a central figure in developing five major Eurocodes: a general standard on thin-walled metal shell structures which was likely the first in the world to fully integrate the method of nonlinear finite element analysis for the purposes of structural design; one on plate assemblies for containment structures with polygonal cross-sections; one on tank structures for storage of liquids and gases; one on silo structures to store granular solids such as agricultural grains or industrial feedstock. Finally, there was one on the complex loadings on silos, a continuation of his early pioneering development of the still widely used documents for Standards Australia.

Michael possessed a rare gift: the ability to combine deep technical expertise with a crystal-clear writing style essential for creating practical design rules. He taught his students to edit their work “until you no longer stumble over your own writing”. He joked that in another life he would have been a good lawyer; we believe he was an honorary one already. Those who collaborated with Michael were profoundly influenced by his intellect and rigour, and his students received highly specialised training that was on offer nowhere else in the world, and we, as the authors of this obituary – his former students, colleagues and friends – are eternally grateful for that.

Michael is survived by his wife Sue, his children Ben and Rebecca, their partners, four beautiful grandchildren and his siblings Sylvia and Ken.

Rest in peace, Michael. You were taken from us too soon.