Andrew Clennel Palmer. 26 May 1938—21 December 2019

• Published in: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society
• Main Author: King, Roger Antony
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; Scott Polar Research Institute; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0015; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0015; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbm.2022.0015

Andrew Clennel Palmer was internationally recognized for his major works on submarine pipeline design and engineering, although his work on the properties of ice and arctic engineering is equally noteworthy. His early research work at Cambridge, Brown and Liverpool Universities related to the mechanical properties of soils and sediments and the effect of temperature; this led to him aiding with the design of the trans-Alaska pipeline and work on major oil and gas pipelines in the UK sector of the North Sea. Andrew's successes drew him deeper into pipeline engineering and he worked with R. J. Brown & Associates in Houston, Texas, and in Holland, becoming vice-president and head of the London office in 1982. During a lull in the pipeline industry, Andrew returned to academe at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology to develop a new course in offshore engineering. When the pipeline engineering industry recovered, Andrew started a company specializing in solving the many complex problems resulting from the installation of pipelines in ever-deeper waters. Andrew returned to Cambridge in 1996 as the first Research Professor of Petroleum Engineering in the Department of Engineering, a new post supported by the Jafar Foundation. He led a vigorous research group with strong connections to the pipeline industry, becoming president of the Pipeline Industries Guild in 1998; and he returned to the study of ice forces on offshore structures, also working with the university's Scott Polar Research Institute. On his retirement from Cambridge, Andrew moved to the National University of Singapore in 2006 as Keppel Chair Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering.