We are sad to announce the sudden death of Roderick Smith of Oxford on 26th December 2024, his 77th birthday. He died in a tragic accident whilst descending from Grisedale Tarn after an enjoyable family walk in his much loved Lake District.

Professor Roderick Smith, ScD, FREng., was the Royal Academy of Engineering Network Rail Research Professor of Railway Engineering, Imperial College and Chair of the Future Railway Research Centre. He was an Honorary Visiting Professor at Central Queensland University, Australia and of the Academy of Railway Science of China and York and City universities in the UK. He was Vice President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was previously a lecturer in the Cambridge University Engineering Department (1980-88) and Professor of Mechanical and Process Engineering, University of Sheffield (1988-2000), including a period as Head of Department (1992-95). He was Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College (2000-2005). Professor Smith had undertaken consultancy work for Tech Director, British Steel plc (1987-90), was involved in crowd safety research assisting the Health and Safety Executive with investigations into the Hillsborough disaster, and has worked for the Board of British Rail (1992-96) and as an expert witness in many legal cases. He has also worked in Japan with Universities, Japanese railway organisations and manufacturers. He has published widely and is frequently invited to address international meetings and conferences.

Prof. Roderick Smith was the president of FESI and cooperated closely with ESIS.

I met Roderick in Donggoun, China, two months ago, at the ISSI 2024 Conference.  We were sitting next to each other and had a very nice chat about many topics, including strengthening of FESI and ESIS relations. I was very much impressed with his personality. His tragic death is an enormous loss for the whole structural integrity community.

Prof. Aleksandar Sedmak