欧美高清

Professor Dracos Vassalos

Emeritus Professor

Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering

Contact

Personal statement

I am Professor Emeritus of Maritime Safety in the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering at the University of 欧美高清 in Glasgow, UK 鈥 one of the largest and most research-active departments in the marine sector worldwide. I was also the Director of the Maritime Safety Research Centre, an industry-academia inter-disciplinary partnership at 欧美高清 University, the only one in the world of its kind. My motto is 鈥渟afety enhancement through innovation鈥, pursued over a 40-year career in industry and academia, promoting the use of scientific approaches in maritime safety and risk, including environmental risk.听 I am Chairman of the Design for Safety鈥 Conference, a subject topic I have introduced to the maritime industry in 1995 and spearheaded its development and implementation since then with some 100 large-scale R&D projects. I am also the founder and served as Chair in a series of maritime safety initiatives that helped shape maritime safety research in academia and catalyse implementation in industry (through Safety at Sea Ltd, a Safety Engineering consulting company I have established and served as Chairman from 1997 to 2011), the full impact of which is still being delivered. For life-long contribution to Maritime Safety I have received a Sustainable Achievement Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2011 (the only Naval Architect ever to receive this), the Froude Medal from the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 2012 and the David Taylor Medal from the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in the USA in 2016 (only 1 in 4 to have ever received both medals). In 2015, I was awarded a DSc from the University of 欧美高清 for work on 鈥淒esign for Safety, Risk-Based Design. Life-Cycle Risk Management), only the second Naval Architect to have ever received a higher doctorate in the UK. 听听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听

Qualifications

BSc (First Class Honours), MBA, PhD, DSc, CEng, FRINA, FIMarEST, FSMANE

Maritime Safety-related Honours and Awards

1987听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 RINA, Samuel Baxter Prize (鈥淓nergy Balance Stability Criteria鈥)

1989听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 SEATRADE Award for Safety at Sea

1994听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Japan's Science & Technology (STA) Fellowship on 鈥淥perational Safety of Ships鈥

1995, 2000 听 听 听 听听 RINA Bronze Medals (鈥淧assenger Ship Safety鈥 and 鈥淭ime-Based Survival Criteria鈥

1996 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听听 British Council /Japan鈥檚 MONBUSHO Visiting Professorship (Stability in F/Q Seas)

1998, 2001/2 听 听 听 Winner of RINA SAFESHIP competition

2010听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Lloyds List Greek Shipping Technical Achievement Award (Safety at Sea)

2011听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Sustained Achievement Award, Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

2012听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 The Froude Medal, RINA Gold Medal for contributions to maritime safety

2014 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 SNAME/ABS Captain Joseph Linnard Prize (鈥淕all-Based Damage Stability鈥)

2016听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 The David Taylor Medal, SNAME for contributions to Naval Architecture

2016听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听 Doctor of Science Degree by the University of 欧美高清 for works on 鈥淒esign for Safety, Risk-Based Design, Life-Cycle Risk Management鈥

2019 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering

2024. 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 听 TRAVIsions Senior Researcher Award

Contributions to Maritime Safety

General Research

  • 40 years research, development and application in the areas of ship stability and safety. Served as a Principal Investigator in a number of major UK research projects on safety, including: SAFESHIP, PRESS, UK Ro-Ro Research Programme, Stability of High Speed Twin-Hull Craft, MOD Trimaran, Landing Craft and Frigate Programmes, the Joint North West European Project (NWEP), the Derbyshire Project, the Estonia Loss Scenario, FPSO Link Programme; and EU projects (45 safety-related projects)
  • Over 100 major research contracts on maritime safety worth over 拢30M
  • Supervision of over 65 PhD and MPhil theses
  • Organiser and Chair of several International Conferences and Workshops on maritime safety
  • Lectured worldwide (invited/keynote speaker) on maritime safety

UK Government Advisory Services (1980 to date)

  • Advisor to Maritime and Coastguard Agency on all aspects concerning stability and safety
  • Advisor to Shipping Policy of the UK DETR on safety of bulk carriers and principal witness of the RFI of M.V. Derbyshire
  • Accident investigations: (Herald of Free Enterprise, Estonia, Derbyshire, Al Salam 鈥98)
  • Member of the Gothenburg technical Group (1999-2001), responsible for establishing performance-based standards for damage stability using model experiments and numerical simulations
  • Long-standing member of the UK delegation to International Maritime Organisation (IMO) for ship stability and safety
  • Member of the Environmental Risk Working Group at IMO
  • Chair of the Panel of Experts on Domestic Ferry Safety at IMO

Maritime Safety-related Initiatives

  • 1995 to 2006:听 Founder and Chair of the International Workshops on 鈥淭he Stability and Operational Safety of Ships鈥; last workshop in Belgrade was number 16.
  • 1996 鈥 2002: Founder and Chair of the ITTC Specialist Committee on Ship Stability in Waves (a professional body responsible for the assessment and planning of research efforts in hydrodynamics on an international scale and for establishing / benchmarking experimental and numerical procedures).
  • 1996 - to 2016:听 Founder and Director of the Ship Safety Research Centre (SSRC -), a world-leading centre on Ship stability and Safety inaugurated on 22 January 1997 by the Minister of Shipping to nurture scientific approaches in dealing with ship safety.听 During 20 years in existence, SSRC has established itself as the acknowledged pace setter on ship safety. SSRC is the Secretariat of the STAB Conferences, the flagship of ship safety conferences.
  • 1997 to 2006:听 Founder of contemporary STAB Conferences and Chair of the International Standing Committee
  • 1997 to 2005:听 Founder and Co-ordinator of the first and largest EU Thematic Network (SAFER EURORO) with 92 organisations from 16 countries and a research portfolio amounting to 鈧150M over the years.听 This Network provided the platform for promulgating the theme 鈥淒esign for Safety鈥.
  • 1999 to date:听 Founder and Chair of the International Standing Committee of the 鈥淒esign for Safety鈥 Conference, introduced to maximise dissemination and impact of this theme and to involve and inculcate the wider industry; next Conference in Hamburg Germany will be number 6.
  • 1999 to 2017:听 Founder and Chairman of Safety at Sea/Brookes Bell, a spin-of company of the University of 欧美高清, currently a privately owned company with some 25 consultants, mostly trained at PhD/MSc level and specialising in the design for and assessment of safety and performance of all types of ships. Strategic Alliances led to diversification to a wide spectrum of safety matters and to undertaking trend-setting projects (particularly safety of mega-ships) that made SaS a household name in maritime safety. 听
  • 2003 to 2009:听 Conceptualised and formulated SAFEDOR (Design / Operation / Regulation for Safety) and served as member of the Steering Committee; a 鈧20M EC FP6 IP, aimed at integrating safety research in Europe and beyond and at driving Risk-Based Design to full implementation ranging from concept development to approval.
  • 2005 to date:听 Founder and Chair of the International Workshops on Risk-Based Approaches in the Maritime Industry, now an annual event.

New Initiatives on broader perspectives of maritime safety

  • 2009 to date:听 Research effort shifting towards limiting environmental impact of ship operations, to widen the focus of SSRC in response to this emerging necessity, aiming for long-term sustainability.听 Two initiatives show promise:听 Dynamic Energy Modelling of ship energy systems and Ballast Water Management Systems onboard ships.听 Both areas have attracted considerable funding (over 拢10M) and appear to offer potential for world-wide exploitation and impact. 2015 to date:听 Invention of a Flooding
  • Containment System, leading to drastically reduced ship capsize risk from serious flooding as a result of flooding incidents (Patent Application No. 1604329). Tis relates to a system which injects highly expandable foam on top of the floodwater in a damaged compartment, forcing the water out, thus enhancing drastically damage stability for all ship types. This led to a spin out company, Safety Innovations Ltd, to implement the system in the maritime industry worldwide.
  • 2016 to date:听 Establishment of the Maritime Safety Research Centre (MSRC), a unique initiative of interdisciplinary, common-threaded R&D to support the development and nurture the implementation of Life-Cycle Risk Management by accounting formally and rationally for all cost-effective measures of risk reduction, thus leading to sustainable safety improvement for new and existing ships and floating offshore assets. The centre was inaugurated in November 2016 by the IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim and initial funding from RCCL and GNV GL.

General Contributions (focus on Maritime Safety)

  • Member of the Editorial Board: Springer Publishing; Journal of 鈥淢arine Science and听 Technology鈥; Journal of Maritime Research鈥; Journal of 鈥淢arine Systems and Ocean Technology鈥;听 Journal of Marine Science and Application; EU Editor in Chief of the Journal of 鈥淪hips and Offshore听 Structures鈥
  • Member of the Safety Advisory Board of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
  • Member of the Scottish Marine Industries Steering Group
  • Member of the Maritime Industries Leadership Council
  • Member of the Council and of the Safety Committee of RINA
  • Member of a Steering Group on 鈥淧robabilistic Damage Stability Rule Development鈥 for the US Navy.
  • Thematic Leader for Maritime Safety Technical Group of the Vessels for the Future EU-Initiative
  • Chair of an IMO Panel of Experts on Domestic Ferry safety
  • Member of the IMO working group on Environmental Risk

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Impact on Maritime Safety

Significant contribution to international legislation through collaborative research to provide the requisite technical input to instigate and support new developments; including:

  • NWEP, setting internationally adopted safety standards for Ro-Ro vessels (the first performance-based ship safety standards) and subsequently (through SaS Ltd) undertaking the upgrading of 80% of the north EU ferry fleet.
  • Directive 2003/25/EC on 17.05.2003, concerning compliance of the South European Ro-Pax with Stockholm Agreement.
  • EC Projects SAFETY FIRST and HARDER leading to probabilistic rules for fire safety and damage stability and supporting the development of a framework for adopting 鈥淎lternative Design and Arrangements鈥 at IMO based on equivalent safety through risk assessment.
  • SAFETY AT SPEED leading to the eventually adopted High Speed Craft Code
  • SAFEDOR was pivotal to introducing the concept of 鈥渟afety level鈥 at IMO that provides the inspiration for many contemporary developments on maritime safety.
  • GOALS, leading to new regulatory requirements for passenger ships and the fore-runner to EMSA III Project that led to new, higher standards for passenger ships.
  • A series of European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA)听 and EU DG MOVE Projects to address and establish suitable safety standards for passenger ships.
  • Taking products and services to the maritime industry though Safety at Sea Ltd and in 2017 through Maritime Safety Innovations Ltd, thus offering valuable feedback to academia to fuel a virtuous cycle on safety innovation.

Publications on Maritime Safety

  • Filed 3 safety-related Patents
  • Editor of 10 Conferences/Workshops Proceedings; co-editor of the first book on Contemporary Ideas on Ship Stability, the first Special Edition in the Marine Systems and Ocean Technology (MSOT) Journal.听 Editor of the first Special issue on Ship Stability in Elsevier Ocean Engineering Journal.

Author of 500+ technical publications: 2 HSE books on 鈥淎voidance of cable snap-loading in offshore lifting operations鈥, 2 major chapters on the first book on 鈥淩isk-Based Ship Design鈥 and 29 additional chapters in various other books; 113 refereed Journal, 192 refereed Conference, 106 Conference, 80 Invited Papers/Key Note Addresses/Articles and of numerous research, contract and internal reports.

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Publications

Ships and Offshore Structures Vol 21, pp. 12-19 (2026)
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20th International Ship Stability Workshop (2025)
Komianos Alexandros, Souglakos Nikolaos, Stefanidis Fotios, , , , ,
International Conference on the Stability and Safety of Ships and Ocean Vehicles, pp. 992-1002 (2024)
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International Conference on the Stability and Safety of Ships and Ocean Vehicles, pp. 643-659 (2024)
Mauro Francesco,
Ocean Engineering Vol 305 (2024)
Mauro Francesco,
Ocean Engineering Vol 299 (2024)

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Professional Activities

Chair
7/6/2021
Member
2011
Member
2011
Member
2011
Editorial board member
2011
Editorial board member
2011

Projects

Vassalos, Dracos (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2020 - 30-Jan-2024
Boulougouris, Evangelos (Principal Investigator) Theotokatos, Gerasimos (Co-investigator) Vassalos, Dracos (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2022
Vassalos, Dracos (Principal Investigator) Boulougouris, Evangelos (Co-investigator) Theotokatos, Gerasimos (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2022
Theotokatos, Gerasimos (Principal Investigator) Boulougouris, Evangelos (Co-investigator) Vassalos, Dracos (Co-investigator)
01-Jan-2019 - 30-Jan-2023
Vassalos, Dracos (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2019 - 31-Jan-2021
Vassalos, Dracos (Principal Investigator)
01-Jan-2018 - 31-Jan-2022

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Contact

Professor Dracos Vassalos
Emeritus Professor
Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering

Email: d.vassalos@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 4092