Jan de Kar

From 1989 through 2006 Jan worked at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, Wageningen; since 2000 he was responsible as R&D director for MARIN's longer term research projects covering ship resistance and propulsion, maneuvering, seakeeping and offshore structures. During these years Jan chaired the Cooperative Research Ships and Cooperative Research Navies forums. He also has been active at the International Maritime Organization, where he chaired the working group for revision of the International Load Line Convention. In the 1980s he worked for three years as research engineer at Det Norske Veritas in Oslo.

Currently, was chairman of the International Standing Committee of the International Conference on Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles (STAB). In addition to publishing numerous papers dealing with the dynamics, stability and safety of naval and commercial ships, he also has written and co-authored papers on wave dynamics, the behavior of floating offshore structures and development of ship stability regulations. Together with two co-authors, he was recipient in 2009 of the James Cochrane Medal for best paper award by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. Jan works as editor and reviewer for several technical journals.

Jan received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in naval architecture and ocean engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and his B.Eng. degree from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. His PhD work dealt with the physics of ship capsizing in waves and the development of a time domain simulation model capable of predicting different modes of capsizing.