Severn was elected president of the ICE for the November 1990 to November 1991 session and was heavily involved in the running of the ICE 's South-West region . Severn was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 for his services to civil engineering and in January 1995 he led a team of European experts to carry out a detailed study of structural failures that occurred during and after the Kobe earthquake . Following his retirement from the university later in 1995 was granted the position of Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering . In 1997 , Severn delivered the sixth Mallet-Milne memorial lecture ( entitled '' Structural Response Prediction Using Experimental Data '' ) for the Society for Earthquake and Civil Engineering Dynamics , in London . Severn authored several books including a history of Victorian engineering and a discussion of structural modelling . His last major project was a book on the history of engineering at Bristol to mark the faculty 's centenary in 2009 , he funded this himself and donated the royalties to establish a university scholarship fund
Kobe earthquake
Great Hanshin earthquake
Roy Thomas Severn