JOHN MORTON BSc PhD CEng MICE FIStructE FIMS MIMMM MCIM
PROFILE
John is a professional chartered engineer with over forty years active engineering experience who now runs his own practice which specialises in masonry.
He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1968 with a BSc degree in civil engineering and continued to do research for a Ph.D. His four-year undergraduate degree included four summers in vacation employment with Sir Robert McAlpine on site at the M1 at Loughborough and on the setting out contract at Drax Power Station, in the design Office with Blyth & Blyth working on Garry Bridge, Pitlochry and on site with Laing on the M6 project at Tebay. On the M6 project he had discovered that it was a better deal to be employed as a labourer and then be used as an Engineer! Before deciding to do research at Edinburgh, he had intended to accept a position at Blyth & Blyth.
John has gained an in-depth knowledge of masonry (material properties and design) through working for major trade associations serving the building materials industry. Author of many papers, technical notes and design guides, including some that are considered ‘industry standards’ such as “Designing for movement in brickwork” and “Accidental damage, robustness and stability”. With overseas workloads, he is an accredited consultant with the World Bank and the Overseas Development Agency.
John is a Founder Member of the British Masonry Society – now the International Masonry Society and has been a Member of Council on several occasions. He is a past Member of Council of the Institute of Materials and a Past Chairman of the Surrey Branch of the Institution of Structural Engineers. He has sat on most of the British Standards Institution Committees dealing with Masonry and Housing since about 1982 and has been a UK delegate on Masonry for the CEN Committee (European Committee for Standardization) developing the Structural Masonry Eurocode. He is currently the Institution of Structural Engineer’s representative on the Head Technical Drafting Committees for Masonry at The British Standards Institution. In 2001 Dr Morton was appointed as the National Technical Co-ordinator (NTC) for UK, a post sponsored by the British Standards Institution and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now the Department of Communities and Local Government). In the role of NTC he has been responsible for the UK’s technical input into CEN Technical Committee 250 dealing with Eurocode 6: Design of Masonry Structures and for the preparation of the four National Annexes (NAs). This work has also involved the UK calibration exercises. He introduced the masonry courses for both the Institution of Structural Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers and presented these for many years. He still presents a few workshops each year but through his own vehicle BMADE. He is the chosen author for the Institution of Civil Engineer’s Handbook on the new Eurocode for Masonry (Thomas Telford). John is also an experienced Expert Witness.
Prior to starting his own practice in 1992, he was Senior Engineer at the Brick Development Association and prior to joining them in 1978, he was the Structural Engineer in the Building Materials Division at the, then-named, British Ceramic Research Association.