Wanda Lewis
Polish-British civil engineer
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Wanda Jadwiga Lewis is a Polish-British civil engineer known for her work on the design of tensile structures, including nature-inspired stress-resilient forms for arch bridges.[1][2] She is an emeritus professor of civil engineering at the University of Warwick.[3]
Education and career
Lewis is originally from Opole, in Poland.[4] After earning diplomas in economics and engineering at the University of Opole, and a master's degree at the University of Birmingham,[3] Lewis earned a PhD in 1982 at the University of Wolverhampton, as the only research assistant at the university,[4] under the auspices of the Council for National Academic Awards.[3]
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.[4]
Book
Lewis is the author of the book Tension Structures: Form and Behavior (Thomas Telford, 2003; 2nd ed., ICE Publishing, 2018).[5]
Recognition
Lewis is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 2004, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2020.[4]