Professor Mehmet Atlar

Personal statement

I joined the NAOME department in May 2016 as the Research Professor through the Global Talent Platform initiative of Strathclyde University.

I had a BSc and MSc degrees in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul while my PhD degree is from Glasgow University in the field of dynamic motion responses of semi-submersibles. Following my postgraduate studies, I worked as a technical consultant at British Maritime Technology Ltd in Newcastle upon Tyne until I was appointed as an academic member of staff at Newcastle University in 1994. During this appointment, I was the director of Emerson Cavitation Tunnel as well as the Professor of Ship Hydrodynamics in the School of Marine Science and Technology of Newcastle University.

My main research and teaching interests lie in the field of experimental and computational naval hydrodynamics with a bias on ship applications. I am specifically interested in ship performance and propulsion as well as motion responses. My recent research interests comprise novel hull-form designs, propulsor design and performance including cavitation and underwater noise, performance prediction and analysis with a specific interest on control coatings for marine biofouling. I am also interested in an energy saving of ships and rotating type renewable energy devices with biomimetic applications.

I have been the member of various ITTC technical committees at technical and chair level (Special Committees on Unconventional Propulsors, Azimuthing Podded Propulsors, I and II, Water Quality and Cavitation, Surface Treatment) as well as the member of the Advisory Council. I have led onto numerous collaborative EC Framework Programme projects, EPSRC projects, industry and defence related project. I was also the champion of the Newcastle University’s research catamaran project, “The Princess Royal” which was built in 2011 and named by the HRH Princess Anne. I have organised and chaired numerous special international conferences in hydrodynamics field and have been regularly organising bi-annual international AMT Conference Series (Advanced Model Measurements Technologies for Maritime Industry) since 2009. So far, I have supervised more than 28 successfully completed PhD research studies in the principal supervisor capacity, and I am also the member of RINA and SNAME.