Hume Fellowship

Applications now open

Applications for the 2025 Fellowship opened in February 2025 and close in 30 May 2025. Please email your application to Jennifer.Hart@beca.com

Scholarship details

1 scholarship up to $35,000

The Hume Fellowship was established in 1988 to award fellowships to Civil Engineering graduates. The Fellowships are financed from the estate of Harry Lancelot Hume FEngNZ, and gifted by his wife Henrietta.

Engineering New Zealand Hall of Fame – Harry Hume

It's intended to provide financial assistance to young civil engineers so they can further their professional skills through specialist study at an overseas institution. The overall aim is to advance the technical skills of the engineering profession within New Zealand.

Eligibility

To apply you must be a New Zealand citizen between the ages of 25 and 35, with a university degree in civil engineering.

How to apply

The basis of selection will be on:

• the subject, the period and location of study proposed by the applicant
• how the study programme will advance the engineering profession within New Zealand
• demonstrated ability in their specialist field.
  

Your application needs to include:

• a cover letter addressing the ‘basis of selection’ requirements above 
• names and contact details for at least 3 referees to confirm your professional ability and character
• your CV, including your qualifications, publications, awards and employment history
• the estimated cost of your proposed study, and an indication of how additional funds will be raised, as you're likely to need more than the $35,000 scholarship offered

If successful, you'll need to submit interim and final reports to show the progress of your study. You will also need to return to New Zealand after your study is completed, for at least 2 years to share the technical skills you gained abroad. In some situations the Trustees may approve a limited period of overseas work experience before you return to New Zealand.

For more information, please get in touch.

Past recipients

2023

Karlo Kudoic

The 2024 Fellowship was awarded to Karlo Kudoic. Karlo is studying a Master of Science in Geotechnical and Geological Engineering at Imperial College London. This one-year taught course, covers the fundamentals of modern geotechnics as well as advanced geotechnical modelling techniques and recent industry developments. The geological engineering stream that Karlo has chosen covers aspects of hydrogeology and rock engineering overlapping with specialisms typically the domain of geologists and engineering geologists.

Geo-professionals have always been crucial in developing and maintaining civil infrastructure, as well as protecting the public from various natural hazards. However, with the rise of more challenging engineering problems due to climate change and the development of marginal lands, the tools and techniques used by practicing geo-professionals must also evolve and improve. MSc courses, such as those offered by Imperial College, provide practising geo-professionals and recent graduates the opportunity to understand and explore advanced topics that are often underutilized by industry, thereby expanding their “library of knowledge” and the number of “tools in their toolbox”. All of which give the industry the greatest chance to solve this generations’ problems both economically and sustainably while rapidly upskilling the next generation.

Michelle Meaclem

Michelle is pursuing a Masters of Public Policy (MPP) at Harvard University. This is a two-year, taught Master's program which covers the cross-disciplinary fundamentals of policy design, analysis, and implementation in the first year, including economics, negotiation, financial management, and policy design and delivery. Michelle is interested in the intersection of climate policy, infrastructure in urban environments, and science. The MPP will help enable better understanding of the influence of governmental policies on industry decision-making, the broader economic and financing environment for sustainable urban development, and managing diverse stakeholder responses. This course will enhance her foundations in civil engineering, allowing her to contribute to and shape the current and future Aotearoa New Zealand engineering and infrastructure industry, particularly in a climate-aligned context.

2021 – Fellowship suspended due to COVID-19 global travel restrictions

2019 – Phoebe Moses

The 2019 Fellowship was awarded to Phoebe Moses. Phoebe has completed a Master of Science in Environmental Sustainability at Edinburgh University. The Edinburgh University MSc in Environmental Sustainability is a 1-year taught masters with research project and dissertation, sitting under the School of Geosciences. The courses offered are wide-ranging, with particular focus on sustainable business practise, the economics of ecology, sustainable development and the intersection of social and environmental sustainability. The MSc aims to equip people with an understanding of how to incorporate sustainable values and solutions into business strategy and industry practise. The course will help to enable an informed approach to assist the transition of the engineering industry in NZ to be low-carbon and sustainable. With impetus from the recent government commitment to form a zero-carbon economy by 2050, there is a need for more expertise in NZ to help the built environment industry transition their way of doing work with a sustainable mandate. The research component of the MSc will give the opportunity to understand how NZ can learn from some of the important lessons of the UK experience in this area.

2017 – Shannon Wallis

2015 – Helen Kerr & Ethan Thomson

2011 – Courtney Groundwater

2009 – Kaley Crawford-Flett & Tim Taylor

2007 – Rebecca Nicholson

2005 - Steve Abley & Merrick Taylor

2001 – Katherine Hill

1999 – Robert Swears

1996 – Jenny Hart & Richard Cowley

1995 – Alison Wakelin

1994 – Andrew Shilton

1993 – Christine Spring

1991 – Peter Bourne-Webb