Peter Byrne

Irish-born Peter Byrne earned an engineering degree from University College, Dublin before travelling to British Columbia, Canada to pursue graduate studies. He completed a masters’ degree in 1966, joined the University of British Columbia in 1967, and completed his PhD there in 1969. It was during this time that he began to garner a reputation as a competitive sailor, as he (alongside non-Olympian Jeff Davis) won a bronze medal in the Flying Dutchman class at the 1967 Pan American Games. His other major international appearance came when he represented Canada in that class at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Competing with Don Andrews and Evert Bastet, he finished 15th among 29 nations, having never placed higher than seventh in any race.

Byrne, alongside his wife Jane, won the Enterprise Class World Championship in 1973, and then began to focus more on his academic career. He was appointed Associate Professor at UBC in 1978 and Full Professor in 1983. Over the next 18 years, he gained a national reputation as an earthquake engineer and geotechnical consultant, before retiring in 2001. He retained his affiliation with UBC and garnered numerous lifetime achievement awards, including the Julian C. Smith Medal in 2009 and the R.F. Legget Medal in 2014. He also served as Chair of the Vancouver Geotechnical Society.