Emeritus Professor Andrew Beeby, a long-time member of the Magazine of Concrete Research editorial advisory board, passed away at end of last year. Such was his contribution to the board, and to concrete research in general, that the board thought that this record of his achievements should be published. 
Professor Andrew Beeby, 1939–2011
Andrew Beeby provided us with much of the background research and most of our understanding of the behaviour of structural concrete at the serviceability limit state. When limit state design codes were introduced, not only did we need to understand collapse but also to recognise, research and describe serviceability behaviour in code terms.
It was mainly due to Andrew's efforts as researcher, code writer and technical delegate to Europe and beyond that these design processes were developed and promoted. He was a gifted researcher and never stopped coming up with revealing insights to structural behaviour throughout his career. At the University of Leeds he was also able not only to pass on his formidable insight to practising professionals through papers and lectures, something he did throughout his career, but also to educate our future engineers. Throughout this period he continued to support engineers in solving their particular problems through his testing and modelling techniques.
After graduation from Northampton College of the University of London (now City University), Andrew first worked for John Laing both in the design office and on site where he was a member of the team that pegged out the route of the first UK stretch of motorway, the M1. These early years of industry experience were important to him as never lost track of the reality of the needs of practising designers in his research career which was to follow.
In 1964 he joined the Cement and Concrete Association and, from an initial project on the estimation of crack widths in reinforced concrete, his future course was decided. He was involved in the drafting of CP110 and, from that beginning, was directly involved in the writing of BS 8110 and, as a Technical Expert under contract to the European Commission, in the writing of EC2.
In 1991 he moved to the University of Leeds to take up the Institution of Structural Engineers' Chair of Professor of Structural Design and remained there researching, educating and supporting the development of our codes and standards. He was a prolific communicator with a long list of publications. He received an Oscar Faber Diploma in 1982 and a Henry Adams Bronze Medal in 1997, both from The Institution of Structural Engineers.
Whilst at Leeds, Andrew led major research projects in areas as diverse as the quantification of construction loading on flat slabs, hinge rotation in slabs reinforced with low ductility reinforcement and tension stiffening. Andrew approached all these projects from first principals and never lost sight of the practical implications of his research. He was an inspiring thinker and communicator who had a gift for reducing complex problems to their fundamentals. He was an inspiration to countless students as well as many code writers and researchers.
Andrew was a member of the editorial board of MCR for many years and for some three years was Editor of Structural Concrete, published on behalf of fib by Thomas Telford. He was a Member of the Institution of Structural Engineers from 1977, a Fellow in 2001 and was awarded the Lewis Kent Award for service to the Institution and Profession in the same year. His other honours were Fellowship of The American Concrete Institute in 1991 and Fellowship of The Royal Academy of Engineering in 1993.
