11 November 2019 – Aurecon Client Director, Energy, Resources & Manufacturing – Africa, Dr Eduard Vorster, has been named an Honorary Fellow of the South Africa Institute of Civil Engineering. This was announced at the recently held SAICE Awards, where Aurecon’s Olifants River Bridge project won a Technical Excellence award.

An Honorary Fellow at SAICE is a person of distinction on whom the Council wishes to bestow honour because of his or her services to the Institution and the civil engineering profession. Applicants are peer-reviewed and only those with the highest order of eminence in the field of civil engineering receive the title.

“I’m deeply humbled to be recognised as having made an impact in the field. Many people – myself included – become engineers to make a positive difference to society. Being named a Fellow by such a highly regarded engineering society that wants to bring about social development in South Africa and across the African continent is a great privilege,” says Vorster.

Vorster has published over 31 papers, industry articles and opinion pieces, and has been involved in several nation identification projects including the Dubai Creek Harbour Tower, which was designed by Santiago Calatrava, the world-renowned architect and engineer. He is a Board member of Aurecon Global (Pty) Ltd.; a member of the Civil Engineering Advisory Board for the University of Pretoria; a past Director of the Aurecon Ownership Board, and past Chairman of SAICE's Geotechnical Committee. He also participates as a member of selected South African National Standards (SANS) Technical Committees and has been a member of the International Society for Soil Mechanical and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE) Board-level Innovation and Development Committee.

A recipient of the SAICE 2014 Engineer of the Year Award, Vorster was a two-time recipient of the SAICE Geotechnical Division’s JE Jennings Award (2006, 2010); the Cambridge Turner Prize (2005); the Barry van Wyk Award (1998), and the DW de Vos Medal (1997). Earlier this year, he was recognised as the Sanlam South African Professional Services Awards (SAPSA) Engineering Professional of the Year at the South Africa Professional Awards 2019.

Gustav Rohde, Aurecon Managing Director – Africa, comments: “I would like to congratulate Eduard, who is passionate about Africa and making our world a better and more sustainable place. His mentorship both within and beyond the business, combined with his human-centric approach to design, as well as his impact on the broader geotechnical and civil engineering field make him a worthy recipient of this award.”