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Sarah Springman

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Sarah Springman (2019)

Dame Sarah Marcella Springman DBE FREng (born 26 December 1956) is a British-Swiss triathlete, civil engineer, and academic. She was educated in England and spent much of her career in Switzerland. She is a former rector of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and currently Principal of St Hilda's College at the University of Oxford.[1]

Early life, education and family

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Born in London in 1956, Springman was educated at Wycombe Abbey, where she was later a governor from 1993 to 1996.[2][3] She studied for a BA degree in engineering sciences at Girton College, Cambridge, from 1975 to 1978,[4] and completed a MPhil in soil mechanics at St Catharine's College in 1983.[5] She carried on her doctoral research in soil-structure interaction, this time at Magdalene College, Cambridge, earning her doctorate between 1984 and 1989.[5] From 1979 to 1983, she worked as an engineer on geotechnical projects in England, Australia, and Fiji (primarily on the Monasavu Dam in Viti Levu), before she became a chartered engineer and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1983.[6] She is married to Rosie Mayglothling.[7]

Academic career

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Springman was a doctoral student in the Soil Mechanics Group at Cambridge University, and was supervised initially by Mark F. Randolph, until he moved to the University of Western Australia in 1985, who was succeeded by Malcolm Bolton. She was the first female research fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge, before becoming a university lecturer in 1990. She has been professor of geotechnical engineering at ETH Zürich since 1997, and was the Deputy Head of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering from 2013 to 2014.[2][4] She became Rector of ETH Zürich on 1 January 2015.[8]

Supported by various funds to introduce computer aided learning at ETH Zurich, she worked with Les Davison from the University of Western England to improve opportunities for teaching and learning of soil mechanics through the Computer Aided Learning in Civil Engineering (CALICE)[9] project (1999-2006), which was shortlisted for a Medida Prix award in 2002. CALICE was redesigned and extended to become the GeoTechnical Information Platform (GeoTIP)[10] (2005-2020).

The emphasis of Springman's research is on geotechnical modelling of soil structure interaction problems, including design and construction of abutments, pile foundations, reinforced soil, and ground improvement of soft and sensitive soils (e.g. sand compaction piles, dynamic compaction). Springman combines physical modelling in a geotechnical centrifuge with numerical modelling so that the data may be used to develop, calibrate or validate new design methods. At ETH Zürich, her group uses a 2.2-metre (7 ft) drum geotechnical centrifuge to carry out practical studies on a range of geotechnical problems.[4]

Springman is an advocate for access for women to STEM / MINT studies and engages in many events and campaigns to support this.[11]

In March 2021, it was announced that Springman would be the next Principal of St Hilda's College, Oxford, in succession to Sir Gordon Duff. She took up the position on 1 February 2022.[12] In June 2022, she gave a farewell lecture at the ETH in Zurich.[13]

Sporting career

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In addition to being a civil engineer, she represented Great Britain at the elite level in triathlon from 1983 to 1993, competing in the 1990 Commonwealth Games Triathlon in Auckland, New Zealand, and winning twenty elite European Triathlon Union (ETU) Championship medals in triathlon and duathlon.[14]

She served as Vice-President of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) from 1992 to 1996, during which time, she played an important role in getting triathlon into the Olympics and establishing it as a recognised sport for the Commonwealth Games. She stepped down as President of British Triathlon on 31 December 2012 after celebrating Team GB's first triathlon medals won at an Olympic Games. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards in London in 2013.[15]

She is a member of the International Olympic Committee's Sustainability and Legacy Commission. On 18 August 2016, she was chosen as a presentation official at the Olympic triathlon medal ceremony, at which brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee received gold and silver medals for Team GB in Rio de Janeiro.[16][17] The International Triathlon Union named her to their Hall of Fame in 2019.[18]

She started rowing in 1994 as part of a Women's Rowing Development Project, sponsored by the ARA (now British Rowing), which was based at Thames Tradesmen Rowing Club, coached by Doug Parnham. Subsequently, she has won medals at the British Rowing Championships for Rob Roy BC in the single and quad sculls and in the Swiss National Rowing Championships for Belvoir RC (Zurich) in the single, quad sculls and women's eight and in European and World Masters Championships in various boat classes.[19] She is a 3-time winner of the Masters CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing sprints over 2000m,[20][21][22] and holds World[23] and British[24] indoor rowing records in the 60-69 age group.

Honours and awards

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Springman was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012[25][8] and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to engineering and international sports administration. She holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bath, Berne, Sheffield, and Wollongong, Australia, and is an Honorary Fellow of all three of her Cambridge Colleges.[26]

Publications

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  • Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (Proc. 7th Int. Conference, ICPMG, Zürich), CRC Press 2010, ISBN .
  • P. W. Mayne, M. R. Coop, Sarah Springman, A. B. Huang, J. Zornberg State of the Art Paper: GeoMaterial Behavior and Testing, Proc. 17. ICSMGE, Volume 4, Mill Press/IOS Press, Rotterdam 2009, ISBN .
  • Sarah Springman, Phillips, Arenson: Permafrost, Swets und Zeitlinger 2003, ISBN .
  • Constitutive and Centrifuge Modelling – two Extremes, Taylor and Francis 2002, ISBN .

References

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  1. ^ Nils Pfändler: Rektorin Sarah Springman im Portrait. NZZ, 7 December 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Neue ETH-Rektorin: Sarah Springman" (in German). 10vor10. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  3. ^ "Sarah Marcella Springman". Debretts People of Today online. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  4. ^ a b c "Ms Prof. Dr. Sarah M. Springman". ETH Zurich. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  5. ^ a b "SPRINGMAN, Dame Sarah (Marcella)". Who's Who. Vol. 2024 (online ed.). A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ "Professor Sarah Springman CBE, FREng". University of Bath. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  7. ^ "Announcement of election of new Principal". Oxford University. 4 March 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Franziska Schmid (11 July 2014). "Sarah Springman to become Rector of ETH Zurich". ETH Zurich. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  9. ^ CALICE. "CALICE".
  10. ^ GeoTIP. "GeoTIP".
  11. ^ "Diversity and Inclusion Campaign by the Royal Academy of Engineering". Royal Academy of Engineering.
  12. ^ "St Hilda's College announce election of a new Principal". Oxford University. 5 March 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  13. ^ "Sarah Springmans Farewell Lecture at ETH Zurich." ETH Zurich, 3 June 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  14. ^ Union, International Triathlon. "Sarah Springman, Honorary Member". Triathlon.org. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  15. ^ a b "ITU Vice President Sarah Springman wins Lifetime Achievement Award". 7 December 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  16. ^ "SUSTAINABILITY AND LEGACY COMMISSION". Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  17. ^ Powell, Jonathan. "Alistair Brownlee takes gold in the men's triathlon, brother Jonathan wins silver". Archived from the original on 4 April 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
  18. ^ Union, International Triathlon (31 August 2019). "ITU announces 2019 Hall of Fame inductees". Triathlon.org. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  19. ^ Belvoir, RC. "Belvoir RC".
  20. ^ "CRASH-B Sprints WIRC 1999".
  21. ^ "CRASH-B Sprints WIRC 2001".
  22. ^ "Crash-B Sprint Results 2017 WIRC".
  23. ^ "World Indoor rowing records Concept 2 60-69".
  24. ^ "British Indoor Rowing records Concept 2 60-69".
  25. ^ "Culture Secretary announces new UK Sport board members" (in German). Department for Culture, Media & Sport. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  26. ^ "No. 63571". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 2022. p. N8.
  27. ^ "Karl Terzaghi Lecture". www.asce.org. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
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