Top honour for civil engineer Nick

A WARRINGTON-based civil engineer has been honoured by the prestigious Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
The institution has appointed 26-year-old Nick Thorley as one of its president’s apprentices for 2016 – to work alongside ICE’s new president Sir John Armitt, the man who delivered the infrastructure for the 2012 Olympic Games and who last week became ICE’s 151st President.
The institution was founded in 1818, won its Royal Charter in 1828 and now represents 80,000 civil engineers worldwide. Its presidents traditionally appoint promising young civil engineers to assist them with their work.
The apprenticeship is considered a significant honour within the profession.
Nick, who for the last four years has worked at Birchwood on nuclear decommissioning projects for Sellafield Ltd, said: “This a fantastic opportunity to develop my skills under the mentorship of Sir John Armitt. It will be a privilege to work with the man who delivered the 2012
Olympic Games, and who is one of the most notable civil engineers of today.
“But as well as a big learning opportunity for me it’s a chance to engage others with engineering. I’m particularly interested in the human stories behind great technical achievements, and as president’s apprentice I’ll be undertaking a project to help bring ICE’s archives in Westminster to life for the benefit of our members. The project will be an important part of preparations for ICE’s 200th anniversary in 2018.”
Nick studied civil and structural engineering at the University of Manchester and took a course on nuclear engineering, which determined his desire to work in nuclear decommissioning.
Outside his work for Sellafield Ltd,  Nick co-coordinated a technical tour of Chernobyl and other nuclear sites in Ukraine in 2013 and in the same year he won the Nuclear Institute Young Generation Network Speaking Competition with a talk on the design of Trawsfynydd Power Station in North Wales.
Darrell Matthews, North West regional director of ICE said: “This is a major honour within the civil engineering profession and Nick deserves great credit.”
He added: “The UK is facing a major skills gap in coming years and decades, and we hope the experience of people like Nick will inspire more young people to choose a career in civil engineering. It’s a really fascinating profession and one that literally shapes the world around us, as civil engineers design all kinds of things from roads and railways to sports stadiums, energy systems and flood defences.”