Engineering with purpose is new IStructE President’s 2024 theme

Tanya de Hoog FIStructE, CEng, MIEAust, the Institution of Structural Engineers’ new President for 2024, calls on her profession, and those in the wider built environment, to harness their collective expertise to accelerate meaningful, scalable, and positive change towards the environment and humanity.

In her inaugural address, Tanya will speak compellingly about her vision and theme for the year, ‘Engineering with purpose: aligning our values for global impact'.

This focuses on the important role of structural engineers to drive climate action, uphold public safety, and positively impact people.

Tanya says: “My vision and call to action for our members - and colleagues in other professions that work with structural engineers – is to commit to evolving and expanding our mindset and skills now, acknowledging the global challenges before us, and our responsibility to contribute as individuals with unique professional skills.”

Tanya is a Principal at Thornton Tomasetti, and succeeds Matthew Byatt as the 103rd President of IStructE. Tanya is the Institution’s fourth woman President in its 116-year history, and its second President from Australia.

Speaking of Tanya’s Presidency, Yasmin Becker, Chief Executive Officer of IStructE says: “Tanya’s been involved with this Institution since 2014, proactively collaborating across the industry. She’s a passionate advocate for her profession, with a distinguished global career. She’s committed to industry-wide collaboration, and has a vision that truly inspires. I look forward to working with her further in 2024.”

Tanya says: “I pay tribute to Matt Byatt for his Presidency in 2023. He has made an immense contribution to the profession, and I thank him for his passion for broadening our profession, and advocating for greater accessibility to knowledge which have formed the cornerstone of my 2024 focus.”

At her inaugural lecture, and to start Tanya’s presidential year, a film will be shown of over 60 IStructE members making commitments for the benefit of People and Planet. They use statement cards that define the actions they will take, such as championing inclusivity by mentoring, enhancing their own engineering competence, or reducing embodied carbon compared to their previous projects by at least 10% in 2024.

Tanya concludes: “I’m incredibly grateful to our engineers and supporting professions globally for making commitments so willingly – it’s a very positive start to 2024 on which we can build. The aim here is to make the Engineering with purpose vision come to life, by building an engineering cohort for change using commitments aligned for the benefit of People and Planet.”

Tanya was elected a Member of the Institution in 2003, became a Fellow in 2014 and was first elected to the Institution’s Board in 2016. She is a graduate of the University of Wollongong in Australia, and secured her Master’s degree on Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment from the University of Cambridge in 2008.