Professor Haig Gulvanessian recently retired as Director of the Construction Division of the Building Research Establishment (BRE). He continues as a Visiting Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at Imperial College, London. Before joining BRE he worked at the Building Regulations Division of the DoE (now DTLR) and with bridge divisions at the DoT and consulting civil engineers. He is Chairman for CEN/TC250/SC1: Actions on Structures, past Chairman of the ISO Committee for Loading and represents the UK on CEN/TC250. He holds the Gold Medal First Class from the Czech Technical University, and in 2007, was awarded a CBE for services to the construction industry.