In the IEEE IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society (TTS) December 2025 issue we remember the late Lindsay Robertson of New Zealand. A Senior Editor at the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, he will be greatly missed by his colleagues and friends. Our condolences to his beloved family and all who knew him.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11314486
Lindsay gave of his time to others unreservedly. A caring and compassionate human, who gave grace to all he came into contact with and volunteered to support IEEE’s Advancing Humanity goal.
Our December 2025 issue of TTS hosts his special on “Imagining Tomorrow’s Infrastructure” alongside Clinton Andrews of Rutgers University and LucyResnyansky of the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) in Australia. IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society December 2025
Everlasting be your memory.
–Katina Michael
________________
It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Dr. Lindsay James Robertson (1954–2025). Lindsay was a dedicated volunteer and affiliate member of the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology (IEEE SSIT). He was a contributor and reviewer at IEEE Technology and Society Magazine from 2010 to 2017, and then became a founding Associate Editor at IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society in 2020, taking on a Senior Editorial role in 2024 [1]. He was a friend of the IEEE SSIT, and published papers at several International Symposia on Technology and Society (see [2], [3], [4]). Apart from IEEE TTS [5], [6], [7], [8], he was also published in other IEEE outlets including, Proceedings of the IEEE [9], IEEE Technology and Society Magazine [10], [11], and numerous other highly respected non-IEEE outlets such as Technology in Society [12], Futures [13], Environmental Management [14], Journal of Food Engineering [15], [16], Journal of Food Process Engineering [17], Food New Zealand [18], International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer [19], Journal of Dairy Research [20], etc. Lindsay also supported several Social Implications of National Security Workshops that were co-located with ISTAS symposia [21], [22]. He was also a patent holder [23].
In 2023, when we called for Special Issue proposals [24], Lindsay approached me asking whether something related to resilient and robust infrastructure might be appealing. We welcomed his idea for the proposal, and then he began the extensive search for relevant co-guest editors. He was so pleased when Prof. Clinton Andrews of Rutgers University and Dr. Lucy Resnyansky of Defence Science and Technology agreed to go on this journey alongside him. Their Special Issue “Imagining Tomorrow’s Infrastructure” graces this December 2025 issue.
One of Lindsay’s many areas of expertise was technology resilience. The cover art of this issue of IEEE TTS depicts an elephant from the work of Przybyszewski et al. [25]. My reason for choosing this as the cover is that elephants symbolize wisdom, strength, loyalty, longevity, and good fortune across various cultures (e.g., African, Thai, and Chinese), and traditions (e.g., Hinduism and Buddhism). Elephants have immense physical power and intelligence, making them representations of resilience and thoughtful decision-making, while their strong family bonds highlight qualities of protection, harmony, and prosperity. And this just about sums up the kind of man Lindsay Robertson was. In 15 years of knowing him, I do not recall him ever speaking a bad word about anyone. He loved his family deeply, his wife and two children, and their spouses; he cared for his extended family even in faraway places like the Shetland Islands; and he was a fine collaborator, always willing to work with others. His annual family letter is something you always look forward to receiving. He loved the outdoors, he loved exploring, and a good tramping adventure. The term “tramping” in New Zealand means long-distance hiking and multi-day camping through rough country.
As an accomplished engineer, he also knew his craft very well and always sought evidence to approach problem-solving, with technological risk being only one area of his expertise. He self-described his fields as including a strong interest in energy, combustion, and bioenergy topics, with a few career excursions into food processing [17], [20], and technology vulnerability. His initial employment was in the New Zealand Forest Service, with secondments to the company power station, and stints in the United Kingdom included consulting work and large industrial boiler design, the latter of which made him exceedingly happy. Upon returning to New Zealand after some study, he commenced work at the Dairy Research Institute, which later became Fonterra’s Research and Development Center, where he was employed for 15 years. He then continued with project engineering consulting, where he traveled to clients in Singapore, Wollongong, and the Philippines. Afterward, he conducted further research at Massey University, and he was still employed as a principal engineer for WSP at the time of his passing.
Lindsay J. Robertson received the B.E. degree in mechanical engineering design and thermal systems from Canterbury University, Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1976, and the M.Tech. degree (Hons.) from Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, in 1990, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia, in 2017, with a focus on the theme of technological risk, exposure, and resilience. From 1976 to 1987, he held positions with the New Zealand Government. From 1990 to 2007, he was with Fonterra (and NZ Dairy) Research Centre, New Zealand. From 2007 to 2016, he was a Principal Engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff, New Zealand. Dr. Robertson has been a Fellow within the Institution of Professional Engineers in New Zealand (IPENZ) since 1999 and also a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (U.K.) since 2013. He was the Editor-in-Chief of IPENZ Transactions from 2002 to 2016.
One of his greatest contributions to the STEM field was a theory of exposure [3]. The whole idea of Lindsay’s thesis was to reduce end-user vulnerability by addressing exposures in technological systems. His thesis used both quantitative and qualitative inquiry; he had his quantitative research results externally validated by an expert in Engineering Systems Failure in Tim Cousins and Associates, as well as devising detailed case study walkthroughs that were reviewed by Mr. Brian Kouvalis, Director of Sustainable Futures NZ. He finished his Ph.D. degree in 2017, three years before COVID began, and much of what he wrote about was not only eerily predictive but surely would have mitigated a great deal of risk during the pandemic outbreak.
As an international consultant, Lindsay had witnessed firsthand the fragility of critical technology systems. But he was equally concerned with critical infrastructure, as he was with high-rise buildings in dense urban areas and wastewater blockages, through to the ability to extract petroleum at the bowser during cyber outages, and even the availability of small parts, assemblage, and delivery of, for example, Ventolin to asthmatics. Somehow, he perceived the volatility of large-scale and small-scale technology systems as interlinked by the same chain-whether it was critical infrastructure, buildings, cars, or something one carried in their bag that had the capacity to save a life. And much of this came from lived experience and lived expertise; lived experience because Lindsay struggled with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and lived expertise because Lindsay looked at the world through his applied practitioner lenses, having traveled widely and studied many different real-world projects. We often spoke about uncertainty with respect to cyber-physical-social-cognitive contexts using scenarios, and I truly believe Lindsay was onto something groundbreaking in how he interpreted risk and how risk could be markedly reduced by plugging gaps that he called “exposures.” I urge future researchers to ponder his findings further and to build on them.
As his Ph.D. supervisor, alongside Dr. Albert Munoz at the University of Wollongong, we heard Lindsay speak frequently about the importance of the research and its role in a society that could better respond to everyday supply chain issues, and even catastrophic events, by building technology systems with less exposure. But he was not so fundamentally concerned with crises or emergencies; rather, every day technology systems that made socio-technical systems function continuously. He was preoccupied with the root causes of failure that could be addressed by better design. From his analysis, many of the problems could be alleviated if engineers conducted basic walk-throughs in their system designs and simply identified failure points where redundancy could be built in. He argued, fixing the problems at the root, and whether it was an emergency for a given entity or a nation, the state of any system (big or small) would be markedly improved. And thus, Robertson [26] can be credited for the first attempt anywhere in the world to develop an “exposure index.” But Lindsay’s engineering colleagues in a given domain would not have known him for his work in other core areas; he kept things separated, though always drew on his interdisciplinary knowledge and experience, particularly toward the end of his career. He welcomed qualitative observations as a result of his Ph.D. thesis, and could see how important they were to quantitative/quasi-experimental methodologies. It is to be expected that readers of this In Memoriam would be surprised to hear of Lindsay’s “other” work, as he seldom spoke about outcomes, nor past glories.
And there is something in all of this. Lindsay had a great deal of humility, not to mention a great sense of humor. In introducing himself, he would never provide biographical detail about his past achievements, but rather state that he was: “Not (quite) short enough for a hobbit…Not (quite) hairy enough for a dwarf…Not (quite) grey enough for a wizard…Mechanical engineer by profession. New Zealander by birth. Recycled teenager by inclination” [22]. I later learnt these words were recorded on his business card, and not just his opening slide deck of an international conference. It would often escape people that he was the Ph.D., M.Tech., B.E., FIPENZ, FIMechE, IntPE, C.Eng., MIITP. In conversations with Lindsay, he would often say: “well you’ve been generous with time in discussing the Ph.D. chapter, Katina, what about you, how are you?” I would share a few things, and often felt like I was talking to a father and a friend, rather than a Ph.D. student, and he would reply, “well, ok, onwards and upwards then.” I heard this phrase at the end of every phone call, and we had many. Lindsay only knew that way, and no other. Always hopeful. Always positive. Always grateful.
After attending Lindsay’s funeral online, I realized what a man of deep faith Lindsay was. I do not ever recall Lindsay telling me that he believed in X or Y, nor did he mention “God” by name; one simply knew there was something about this man [27]. But indeed, he was a true believer, an Elder of a little community of St Albans Church in Palmerston North, New Zealand. He applied his skills in this community in so many different ways to support people of diverse backgrounds. Stories of Lindsay’s outreach to others became evident. He stayed in touch and inquired after people he knew needed support. Whether it was a family member, or a retired pastor, a member of the congregation, or a former colleague, he had a habit of calling at just the right time. Although Lindsay’s loss is immeasurable to those who loved and knew him and worked with him daily, a quiet sense of reassurance does grip us all. Good people never die. Their legacy lives on (Matthew 25:21).
_______
To view the full version of this article, including references, click HERE.
_______
JOIN SSIT