William Ian Liddell CBE FREng FIStructE Hon FRIBA is a structural engineer

Structural engineer

Structural engineers analyze, design, plan, and research structural components and structural systems to achieve design goals and ensure the safety and comfort of users or occupants...

 and the designer of London's Millennium Dome

Millennium Dome

The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...

. He was one of the founding partners of Buro Happold

Buro Happold

Buro Happold is a professional services firm providing engineering consultancy, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of buildings, infrastructure and the environment, with its head office in Bath, Somerset...

 and is a Royal Academy Visiting Professor of Engineering Design at Cambridge University School of Engineering. He is now a consultant for Buro Happold.

He studied mechanical sciences at Cambridge University followed by a diploma in concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 structures at Imperial College, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

He was project engineer on the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

, playing a significant role in the formfinding of the iconic roofs. He received the IStructE Gold Medal in 1999.

For his work as Chief Design Engineer on London's Millennium Dome project, he was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1999 New Year's Honours.