John Burland

John Burland
John Burland in Cambridge, 2016
Born	(1936-03-04) 4 March 1936 (age 80)
Alma mater	Witwatersrand University University of Cambridge
Thesis	Deformation of soft clay (1967)
Doctoral advisor	Kenneth H. Roscoe

John Boscawen Burland CBE FREngFRS (born 4 March 1936) is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Investigator at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Imperial College London.

John Burland attended Parktown Boys' High School and then received a First Class Honours BSc degree in Civil Engineering from Witwatersrand University in 1959. Then he moved to the University of Cambridge where he carried out research in Soil Mechanics under the supervision of Professor Kenneth H. Roscoe which led to the award of a PhD degree in 1967. His thesis title was Deformation of soft clay. He then moved to Imperial College London where he served as Professor of Soil Mechanics for over 20 years and Head of the Geotechnics Section.

Burland is best known as the engineer who prevented the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over, He was awarded the Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Francis I by the Duke of Castro. He was also involved in ensuring that the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben were unharmed by the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line.