Inaugural lectures

An Inaugural Lecture is when an academic gives a presentation about their research to mark their promotion to Professor.

Use the links on the left to read about our previous lectures.

Upcoming lecture - Professor Naomi Brookes - Thursday 8 March

Megaprojects: Why do they fail, why does this matter and what we can do about it?

Megaprojects are extremely large-scale investment projects that typically cost more than $1 billion. Megaprojects are united by their extreme complexity (both in technical and human terms) and by a long record of poor delivery. Their inability to be designed appropriately and delivered on time and to budget has profound implications not only for the construction organisations delivering them but also for the client organisations commissioning them (which are often governments spending public money.) In this, her inaugural lecture, Naomi will review the work that has been undertaken up to now in trying to manage megaprojects better. Naomi will then speculate on what we will need to learn in the future in order
to make sure that we build megaprojects that work for clients, constructors and society as a whole.

Find out more