Stuart Palmer is a Technical Director-Earthquake Foundation Engineering with Tonkin & Taylor Ltd. He has more than 30 years’ experience in foundation engineering with a specialist interest in earthquake engineering and soil structure interaction. Stuart is actively involved in the seismic design and assessment of buildings in collaboration with structural engineers. He was a lead author of the MBIE national guidance on “Seismic assessment of existing buildings”, section C4 “Geotechnical considerations”, and currently a member of the working group writing the Engineering NZ Handbook for Low Damage Seismic Design. Stuart continues to provide review and technical guidance in the space of geotechnical earthquake engineering.