Wanda Jadwiga Lewis is a Polish-British

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

known for her work on the design of

tensile structure A tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending. The term ''tensile'' should not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Tensile st ...

s, including nature-inspired stress-resilient forms for

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct ...

s. She is an emeritus professor of civil engineering at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

Education and career

Lewis is originally from

Opole Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ; * Silesian: ** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole'' ** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole'' * Silesian German: ''Uppeln'' * Czech: ''Opolí'' * Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...

, in Poland. After earning diplomas in economics and engineering at the

University of Opole The University of Opole ( pl, Uniwersytet Opolski) is a public university in the city of Opole. It was founded in 1994 from a merger of two parallel educational institutions. The university has 17,500 students completing 32 academic majors and 53 ...

, and a master's degree at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

, Lewis earned a PhD in 1982 at the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mech ...

, as the only research assistant at the university, under the auspices of the

Council for National Academic Awards The Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) was the national degree-awarding authority in the United Kingdom from 1965 until its dissolution on 20 April 1993. Background The establishment followed the recommendation of the UK government Com ...

. After working as a schoolteacher and as a borough council structural engineer, she joined the Warwick faculty in 1986. She became the first woman in the Warwick civil engineering department to be promoted as a reader and a professor.

Book

Lewis is the author of the book ''Tension Structures: Form and Behavior'' (Thomas Telford, 2003; 2nd ed., ICE Publishing, 2018).

Recognition

Lewis is a

Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned society, learned or professional society, professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. ...

in 2004, and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

in 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Wanda Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British civil engineers British women engineers Polish civil engineers Polish women engineers Alumni of the University of Birmingham Alumni of the University of Wolverhampton Academics of the University of Warwick Fellows of the Institution of Civil Engineers 20th-century Polish engineers 21st-century Polish engineers 20th-century British engineers 21st-century British engineers 21st-century British women engineers 20th-century British women engineers