Arabia Felix: Fookes in the desert

Peter Fookes’ background in chemistry, allied with his understanding of geo-materials and desert terrain, allowed him to make an important contribution in the development of hot salty desert concrete technology from the 1970s onwards. Through his consultancy work across the Middle East, Peter recognized that widespread premature concrete deterioration was found, at least in part, to be associated with the presence of chloride salts, either introduced by contaminated aggregates or mix water, or due to salt weathering. In 1992 Peter was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Concrete Technology. In the 1970s he was instrumental in setting up the Bahrain Surface Materials Resources Survey, opening the door for a generation of desert geomorphologists to contribute to the development boom that followed in the Middle East. On the award of an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society in 2003 he was described by Professor Sir Ron Cooke as ‘a true father of engineering geomorphology’. In later years he helped the oil and gas industry address the geohazard challenges posed by routing major pipelines through deserts across the Sahara and in Arabia.