Fire presents a unique and often underestimated challenge for resilient infrastructure: it is highly uncertain, strongly influenced by human decisions, and governed by system-level behaviour rather than individual component performance. Yet, structural fire design is still commonly treated as a prescriptive compliance exercise, with critical assumptions about fire severity, protection integrity and load redistribution rarely made explicit. Drawing on research into steel and composite structures in fire, including hybrid and innovative systems, this presentation reframes fire not simply as an accidental load, but as a test through which to examine the robustness, adaptability and long-term resilience of structural design. The presentation will explore how engineering choices, professional roles and design cultures shape fire performance in practice, and will argue that truly resilient structures require a shift from code-driven compliance towards consequence-aware, performance-based design thinking that explicitly acknowledges uncertainty and the human factor.
Forfatter/presenter
Professor Katherine Cashell is Professor of Structural Engineering at University College London (UCL), where she leads a research group focused on the behaviour and design of steel and composite structures under extreme loading conditions. Her work has particular emphasis on structural fire engineering, system‑level behaviour, and the role of material and connection ductility in resilient design. She has extensive experience spanning academia and industry, including senior engineering roles at the Steel Construction Institute and in consultancy, and currently leads major research projects on resilient steel and hybrid structural systems. Katherine is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and the Institution of Civil Engineers, and is actively engaged in professional practice, education, and policy discussions related to fire safety, resilience, and structural design responsibility.
Katherine is deeply engaged in professional service and leadership within the structural engineering community. She served as an elected member of Council at the Institution of Structural Engineers from 2019 to 2022 and has held several senior roles within the Institution, including Chair of the Education Panel (2020–2021). She is currently a board member of the Joint Board of Moderators (JBM), representing both IStructE and ICE in the UK’s accreditation of civil and structural engineering programmes. She also serves as a panel member for the UK’s 2029 Research Excellence Framework (REF), contributing to criteria setting and assessment for Unit of Assessment 12 (Engineering), and is an active member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. She sits on several Eurocode and standards committees, as well as UK government advisory groups.
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