Skip to main content

World Highways contributor Max Lay wins Peter Nicol Russell award

The Institution of Engineers Australia has awarded World Highways contributor Dr Maxwell Lay the prestigious Peter Nicol Russell medal for his contribution to science and engineering. According to the citation, the medal is the most prestigious award made by the institution. “The recipient represents the technical, professional and community service standards of engineering to the profession and the community.” May received degrees at Melbourne University and the US university Lehigh in Pennsylvania.
December 9, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The Institution of Engineers Australia has awarded 3260 World Highways contributor %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 2 1845 0 oLinkExternal Dr Maxwell Lay Visit &quot;Road user charging the way to highway investment&quot; page false /categories/traffic-focus-highway-management/features/road-user-charging-the-way-to-highway-investment/ false false%> the prestigious Peter Nicol Russell medal for his contribution to science and engineering.

According to the citation, the medal is the most prestigious award made by the institution. “The recipient represents the technical, professional and community service standards of engineering to the profession and the community.”  

May received degrees at Melbourne University and the US university Lehigh in Pennsylvania. He was appointed executive director of the Australian Road Research Board in 1975. After 13 years he moved to 5155 VicRoads, the Victoria state organisation for planning, developing and managing arterial roads. Among his responsibilities at VicRoads was the Eastern Freeway and Western Ring Road. He later joined consulting engineering firm SKM in Melbourne.

Lay was a founding director of toll road company ConnectEast that is responsible for the finance, design, construction and operation of Melbourne's 39km EastLink tollway project. In late 2011, the company was sold to Horizon Roads for around US$1.83 billion (AUS$2.2 billion).

He also is an advisor to the non-political industry association Roads Australia, a professorial fellow at Melbourne University and was president of the Australian Automobile Association from 2000-2002.

Sir Peter Nicol Russell was a Sydney industrialist during the last half of the 19th century.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Hi-viz hijinks make a flockery of saftey clothing
    September 16, 2015
    Fashionable they aren’t, but the wearing of high-visibility clothing is increasingly either recommended by businesses or made mandatory by law, especially for construction workers on every kind of site. But has the use of “hi-vis” clothing, especially the vest, gone too far? In Britain, the wearing of the hi-viz clothing has taken off - literally, according to a BBC television news report that shows a flock of chickens wearing the fluorescent coloured vest.
  • Major Chinese bridge innovation event
    December 13, 2012
    Interest is strong in the Bridge Innovation Summit 2013 (BIS2013) being held from April 25th- 26th in Beijing, according to the event organisers. The Bridge Innovation Summit 2013 will be the leading event for bridge developments in Asia, with over 20 top executives as speakers and over 150 senior executives as participants. Confirmed leading bridge related companies and organisations include Arup, BAOSTEEL Construction, COWI, China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), China Railway Group and China’s
  • bauma presents a new traffic concept
    January 6, 2017
    Anybody who knows bauma, will also know how busy it can get on the way to and from the show, both on the roads and on public transportation. So, to make travel as easy as possible for the exhibitors and visitors to this, the world´s biggest trade show, Messe München has developed a new traffic concept, featuring remote parking areas. From the airport to bauma The airport shuttle is a non-stop bus service taking participants straight from the international airport at Munich (stopping at Terminal 1 and Termin
  • bauma presents a new traffic concept
    March 12, 2013
    Anybody who knows bauma, will also know how busy it can get on the way to and from the show, both on the roads and on public transportation. So, to make travel as easy as possible for the exhibitors and visitors to this, the world´s biggest trade show, Messe München has developed a new traffic concept, featuring remote parking areas. From the airport to bauma The airport shuttle is a non-stop bus service taking participants straight from the international airport at Munich (stopping at Terminal 1 and Termin