INAUGURAL SIR DONALD GOSLING AWARD WINNERS

Authors under the age of 40 from The Netherlands, Canada and Germany were unanimously voted winners when the inaugural Sir Donald Gosling Award was held at the 9th International Naval Engineering Conference and Exhibition (INEC).

“The Sir Donald Gosling Award was a very welcome introduction to INEC 2008,” explains Captain John Newell MBE RN, Ministry of Defence, chairman of the INEC Organising Committee. ”The new award was restricted to entries from the under 40s to encourage involvement and attendance from younger participants from the military, industry and academia. This allowed them to demonstrate a fresh and imaginative approach, together with ingenuity, in delivering a practical proposal which contributes to improved future naval operations or support.”

The first prize of £5000 was shared between Wendy de Bruijn (25) and Bart van Oers (29) students at Delft University of Technology for their presentation ‘Submarines for the future, a new design model’. The second prize of £2,500 was awarded to Lt Cdr Jacques Olivier (39), Diesel Development Officer, UK MoD – Defence Equipment & Support (seconded from the Canadian Navy) for his presentation ‘UK Navy surface warships engines exhaust emissions study 1988-2006’. And, the third prize of £1,500 went to Dr Lars Grünitz, Market Development Manager Submarines, Germanischer Lloyd AG from Hamburg for his presentation ‘First ever classification of a Naval submarine’.

The Awards, judged on the quality of the paper and its presentation were presented by Sir Robert Hill following his Closing Summary at INEC 2008. “In all the authors of thirteen presentations were considered for the inaugural Sir Donald Gosling Awards at a lunchtime meeting of all the INEC 2008 Organising Committee, where they agreed unanimously on the prize winners,” says Captain Newell.  “The Committee felt that the winning authors had submitted excellent papers, representing largely their own work, and were impressed by the authors’ original presentations at the conference.”

Sir Donald Gosling was a Rating in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.  On leaving the Navy, he started National Car Parks in 1948 with partner Ronald Hobson charging for car parking on bombed sites in London; fifty years later they sold its parent company, National Parking Corporation for a considerable sum. He owns the elegant 245 ft yacht Leander, recently used by HRH Prince of Wales and HRH Duchess of Cornwall during their State visit to Trinidad and Tobago.

Sir Donald has been hugely generous towards the Royal Navy. He has provided funding for improvements to mess decks in many ships, supported the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review and many other Naval events, and has funded many naval museums.

ABOUT THE WINNERS
First Prize Winners:

• Wendy de Bruijn obtained her MSc in Marine Technology at Delft University in December 2007. She specialised in the design of marine systems. Next to curricular activities, Wendy was actively involved on the board of the student association of Marine Technology and the student council of the Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering.
• Bart van Oers graduated Cum Laude in April 2005 for his MSc in Marine Technology at Delft University, with a specialisation in Ship Hydromechanics. Funded by the Royal Netherlands Naval College, Bart is currently working towards obtaining his PhD at Delft University, focussing on the development of detailed yet flexible ship design models.

Second Prize Winner:

• Lieutenant Commander Jacques Olivier is a Canadian Navy officer with over fifteen years’ of experience as a marine systems engineer, currently seconded to the Royal Navy in England (Bristol) since August 2006. His primary functions as a technical project officer are to provide expertise in diesel engines technology and exhaust emissions, and manage development programmes aimed at resolving capability gaps and legislative compliance in these areas. Jacques is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) and a Project Management Professional (PMP) who holds dual Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa (Canada).

Third Prize Winner:

• Dr Lars Grünitz, born in 1976, studied at Hamburg University of Technology and at the University of Cape Town. He graduated with a Master  of Science degree in Structural Engineering in 2001.  He then joined the department of Ship Structural Design and Analysis at Hamburg University of Technology as a researcher and was awarded Doctor in Engineering in 2004.  After working at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft AG as a research and consultant engineer for naval submarines, he joined Germanischer Lloyd in 2005 starting in the Advanced Engineering and Strategic Research Division mainly dealing with direct calculations for ship structures and machinery.  He then took over his current position as Market Development Manager Submarines in the Strategic Sales Division. He was awarded a Rotary International Scholarship in 1999, and a Scholarship from the Germany Research Foundation in 2000. In 2004 he obtained the Curt-Bartsch Prize from the German Society for Maritime Technology for his contributions to ship building research. 

ENDS

About IMarEST

• Photographs are available of each of the winners receiving their award from Sir Robert Hill. Contact Judith Patten at judithpatten@wwmail.co.uk for a hi res jpeg, specifying which winner(s) you are interested in.
• The winners’ presentations are also available from Judith Patten
• Voucher copies/tear sheets with coverage are always welcome, as is a simple notification of use of the release to judithpatten@wwmail.co.uk
• The IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology) is the leading membership body and learned society for marine professionals, industry, research and education, with 49 branches and 15,000 members worldwide
• Professional Recognition: qualifications for membership are based on the educational background and/or multi-disciplinary experience ensuring that high professional standards are maintained
• The only membership body that can award Chartered Marine Scientist and Technologist, Chartered, Incorporated and Engineering Technician status to their professional engineering counterparts
• The IMarEST is part of the Marine Engineering, Science and Technology Federation
• IMarEST Marine Partners:  a membership network for organisations in industry, research and education operating in the marine and offshore sectors
• Maritime journals include MER (Marine Engineers Review), The Marine Scientist, The Journal of Offshore Technology (JOT); Maritime IT & Electronics; Shipping World & Shipbuilder; and the newly launched Journal of Operational Oceanography
• IMarEST Publications: Technical Proceedings Parts A, B, C and D; and a catalogue of 100+/- books
• The IMarEST Marine Information Centre (MIC) has 36,000 references available; 86,000 references on the combined IMarEST/BMT database; and some 5,000 books and 3,000 conference proceedings
• IMarEST organisers 30-40 events and conferences annually; and was the host organisation for the World Maritime Technology Conference held in London 6-10 March 2006

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