Dr Ian Brown, Managing Director.

Ian became Managing Director of Fitzroy in 2003, having worked part-time for Fitzroy since the 1980's when he created a spiral staircase data generator, and a dot-matrix character set for plotting. In the 1990's Ian wrote the NL-STRESS GUI (Graphical User Interface). Since running Fitzroy full-time, Ian has converted the NL-STRESS GUI to a 32-bit Windows Application. Ian has also converted the TAPE plot editor, the SCALE printing interface, the Windows interface to the SAND, SCALE, LUCID, SPADE, and NL-STRESS programs, and all other programs in the SAND and SCALE suites to 32-bit Windows Applications. Ian has added print preview and html-help, and then pdf help, facilities to the suites and added an automatic save to pdf option for each printout.

Ian has ported all of SCALE 4's Fortran 77 code to SCALE 5's modern C code, for ease of maintenance and development, and converted all of the programs for Windows. Ian has added a new iPad version. Ian has set up a testing regime to ensure that tens of thousands of test runs all give identical answers for the four versions: SCALE 4, SCALE 5 Windows, SCALE 5 iPad 32-bit, and SCALE 5 iPad 64-bit. Ian has added a save to Word feature for all output. Ian mans the telephone support hot-line.

Ian previously worked for Hyder Consulting, now Arcadis, from 1997 to 2003, in the design, assessment, strengthening, contract preparation and site supervision of long span, cable-stayed and suspension bridges, including Foyle Bridge, Bishop's Bridge Paddington, Avonmouth Bridge, Hungerford Millennium Bridge, Tamar Bridge, Hammersmith Bridge, and Cleddau (Milford Haven) Bridge.

Ian received his Ph.D. in 1997 from the Cambridge University Engineering Department Structures Group, for analytical and practical studies into the behaviour of terminations for Kevlar ropes; his B.A. from Cambridge University Engineering Department in 1990, having been awarded a Townsend Scholarship from St. John's College for achieving a First.

Ian is a Member of the British Computer Society.

Selected Publications:

• Abrasion and Friction in Parallel-lay Rope Terminations (pdf 2.2MB) IF Brown, PhD Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1997.
• The friction and wear of Kevlar 49 sliding against aluminium at low velocity under high contact pressures (pdf 322 KB) Brown, I.F. and Burgoyne, C.J. (1999), Journal of Wear, 236 (1-2). pp. 315-327. ISSN 0043-1648

Ian produced and entered two posters for the IStructE awards for projects with which he was involved:

• Strengthening of Avonmouth Bridge, (pdf 310KB), project awarded the Institution of Structural Engineers' Structural Achievement Award 2001.
• Strengthening and Widening of Tamar Bridge, (pdf 426KB), project awarded Institution of Structural Engineers' Structural Achievement Award 2003.

Mrs Jeanette Brown, Director.

Jeanette received her BSc(Hons) in Economics and Social Policy from Loughborough University in 1995. After graduation she worked in Human Resources for F.I.Group/Xansa, now Sopra Steria, for over 10 years. In 2010 Jeanette joined Fitzroy Systems as a Director taking over responsibility for the accounts and administration.

Dr Douglas Brown.

The late Douglas Brown founded Fitzroy Computer Systems in 1972 and wrote the bulk of the program code and documentation for the SAND, SCALE, LUCID, SPADE, and NL-STRESS programs, and is the author of books on reinforced concrete and structural steelwork. As well as the NL-STRESS structural analysis program, Doug also wrote SuperSTRESS for the Cement & Concrete Association in 1981/82, and upgraded the structural analysis program STRESS-2 to STRESS-3 in 1984. (SuperSTRESS is now marketed by Graitec, STRESS-3 was marketed by GTS.)

Doug received his Ph.D. from the University of Surrey in 2006 for developing methods to verify the correctness of structural engineering calculations. Doug was a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

Doug retired in 2010, and sadly passed away in 2019 after a long battle with dementia.

Selected Publications:

• In Memoriam: Dr Douglas Brown, 1940-2019, BSc DIC PhD MPhil CEng MICE FIStructE FBCS.
  (pdf 128 KB)
• Verifying the correctness of structural engineering calculations (pdf 1,711 KB), DW Brown, PhD thesis, University of Surrey, 2006.
• Recycling Housing, (pdf 4,707 KB) DW Brown, MPhil thesis, University of Nottingham, 2002.
• PRAXIS: A Program for Reproducing Proforma Design Calculations (pdf 241 KB) D Alcock, D Brown, The Computer Journal, Vol 33, No 4.
• A system for invention, (pdf 93 KB) DW Brown JD Brown, The Structural Engineer, Volume 82 Issue 6, March 2004.
• Reinforced Concrete Design Charts for beams and slabs in 30 Grade concrete, DW Brown, Spon 1975. ISBN 0419116001
• Stanchion design charts: safe coincident axial loads and bi-axial bending moments for universal column sections & commonly used universal beam sections of steel grades 43, 50 and 55. DW Brown. Constrado 1974.

Professor Michael Horne.

The late Michael Horne contributed all the plastic analysis and other non-linear theory to the NL-STRESS program. Michael was the author of more than 60 published books and papers on structural engineering; a Fellow, Past President and Gold Medal recipient of the Institution of Structural Engineers; a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society.