Dr Bil Loth CEng, FIMarEST, Managing Director of WD Loth & Company Ltd has been elected the 102nd President of The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology – IMarEST taking over the presidency of the Institute from Frank Mungo at the Institute’s AGM today (11 March). He will serve the IMarEST in this capacity for one year.

“The appointment of offshore expert Bil Loth as our President is in keeping with the best traditions of the Institute as well an a reflection of its continuing evolution,” says IMarEST Director General, Keith Read. “He joins us at a particularly busy and exciting time. One of his first tasks will be to launch our Marine Partners initiative during his speech at our Annual Dinner tomorrow (12 March); and next week he will be involved in launching a new IMarEST marine science journal at Oceanology International.”

Bil Loth’s own notes on his career are characteristically short:

It took Edwin Lampert, who writes both for MER – Marine Engineers Review and IMarEST News, to discover more about the 102nd President.

“Bil's entire professional career has been in offshore engineering. The first twenty years, as an Exxon employee, were spent in a variety of locations and included working on the development of subsea production systems, a lifelong interest. This was followed by a ten-year period with Shell Expro in the North Sea, where he led a number of research projects and conducted the early work on all of Expro's North Sea underwater developments. Since 1986 his consultancy, WD Loth and Company, has provided subsea engineering expertise on world-class development projects all over the globe and developed a number of specialised technologies for deepwater application.

“An American who has lived in the UK for the past thirty years, it was as Chairman of the British Committee of the Engineering Committee for Oceanic Resources that Bil first began to work with members of the (then) Institute of Marine Engineers, which in turn lead to his membership. He likes to point out that the Institute's objectives of encompassing a wide variety of ocean interests is not a recent concept and although - given his offshore background - he was 'hardly the typical member at the time' he was warmly welcomed and found a number of fellow offshore engineers actively engaged in the Institute. As a Past Chairman of the Society of Underwater Technology (SUT), Bil also likes to point out that the soon to be consummated link between the IMarEST and SUT is the outcome of the warm relationships between past Presidents of the Institute and the Chairmen and Presidents of the SUT. Bil's vision is that this relationship will 'grow and prosper to serve as a model for the gathering of the ocean engineering and science community.'

“Bil is an unashamed ocean, and in particular very deepwater engineering, enthusiast - a passion that has spilled over to sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with children and young engineers. This involvement, while personally rewarding, is also motivated by a desire to communicate the excitement and challenge of ocean engineering and science to upcoming generations. Unsurprisingly, he is a committed supporter of the IMarEST's Young Marine Professionals Network.

“The totality of Bil's experience has given him a keen appreciation of the breadth of science required to engineer systems for the marine environment. His first degree was in Civil Engineering but his graduate work in microbiology, applied mathematics and thermodynamics has blurred his distinction between engineering, science and technology.

“His offshore career only reinforces his belief that the traditions of the marine engineer are shared by all that work in the ocean and that changes in the Institute are less a change in focus, rather a simple organic growth that acknowledges that the fellowship has expanded. Bil believes he is a mirror of the Institute and hopes that he can in some way illustrate not only what it has always been but what it will continue to be: 'a bastion of capability in the quest to utilise the sea.'”

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Issued on behalf of IMarEST by Judith Patten @ JPPR