NEWS
Nominations for the 2025 Smeaton Medal now open. Click here for more information.
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The Society will be welcoming its new First Class and Honorary members at its first dinner of 2025 to be held on 29th January at the Institution of Civil Engineers. Click here for a list of current members of the Society
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The Society has commissioned a documentary film entitled "John Smeaton - The Father of Civil Engineering" to coincide with his 300th birthday. Click here to view the film. The Society acknowledges the contribution of sponsors who have made this possible. This will take you to YouTube. If you like the film, please click "like" and leave a positive comment - this will encourage YouTube to promote it more widely to our target audience.
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At the Society's AGM on 27th November, 2024 Dr Jean Venables was elected President of the Society for 2025. Professor David Johnson was elected Honorary Treasurer and John Edgley was elected Assistant Honorary Treasurer, both for three year terms of office.
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The Society held its annual luncheon at University House, Leeds University to celebrate the 300th Anniversary of the birth of John Smeaton. At this event, the Smeaton Medal was presented to Stephen Shapcott by Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal, and a talk about John Smeaton was given by member Julia Elton.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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’
