Hume Fellowship
Recipients of Hume Fellowship in 1999
Robert Swears
The 1999 Hume Fellowship was awarded to Robert Swears, aged 34, Senior Technical Engineer at Opus International Consultants, who studied at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Robert, who at the time was based at the Rotorua office of Opus International Consultants, was responsible for a design group whose work involved pavement and traffic design, project and contract management, and a variety of highway and traffic safety related tasks. Robert was also involved in the preparation of a new national code of practice for Temporary Traffic Control.
During his fellowship, Robert studied transport systems and the location of transport facilities to serve the public, traffic engineering with a focus on capacity, traffic flow, and intersections, properties of pavement materials and testing, pavement evaluation and management, and project management. Unlike other Hume Fellows Robert was married with two young children who with his wife, accompanied him to Sydney for his study and together they occupied a two-bedroom student apartment at the University. Robert praised the sacrifices made by his family to allow him to study, but said his wife was a great support to him during his study.
Kevin Thompson, Chief Executive of Opus International Consultants wrote of Robert’s value to the company after his Hume Fellowship study. “Robert Swears applied for the Hume Fellowship in 1999 and, as the Regional Manager for Opus’ central region at the time, I was pleased to be able to act as one of the referees for his application. One of the Opus values is 'developing our people to their full potential'. Through the Hume Fellowship and support from Opus, Robert had the opportunity to add to his skills, so that he could operate at a much higher level in his chosen field of Transportation Engineering. Robert excelled in his postgraduate studies at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Since returning to us he has earned recognition, from our clients and within Opus, for his expertise as a Transportation Engineer, and the very significant contribution he is making in this field.”