Vale Lance Endersbee (1925-2009)

Emeritus Professor Lance Endersbee AO

Past and present Monash staff and students have offered their tributes to Emeritus Professor Lance Endersbee AO, who died last week.

Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Professor Tam Sridhar said Australia had lost one of its most visionary leaders in engineering.

"Professor Endersbee was an outstanding engineer whose career in industry, research and teaching demonstrated a great passion for open-minded inquiry and discovery," Professor Sridhar said.

Professor Endersbee, who was Dean of Engineering at Monash from 1976 until 1988 and Pro-Vice Chancellor from 1988-89, was involved in the development of critical infrastructure in Australia and around the world.

He worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme (while still a student), on Tasmania's hydroelectric system, on dam construction in the Mekong, and on a range of projects in the US.

His fields of expertise included the design of major economic development projects, water resources, energy engineering and transport. He produced many designs that were inspired by an understanding of the importance of nation-building infrastructure.

He was also an internationally-recognised authority on rock behaviour and tunnelling. .

He was a former president of the Institution of Engineers Australia, and a recipient of its highest honour, the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal.

In his retirement he continued to consult on national and international infrastructure needs and self-funded many trips around Australia to assess these projects. He published a book in 2008 called A Voyage Of Discovery.