Aad J. Hermans
Delft, Netherlands
21st Georg Weinblum Memorial Lecture (1998/99)
The Role of Applied Mathematics in Hydrodynamics for Ships and Floating Offshore Structures | PDF
Ship Technology Research/ Schiffstechnik, vol. 46(1999), pp. 59–80
Short Biography
Aad Hermans, born on April 8,1941 in Leiden, studied at the Delft University of Technology and graduated in February 1963 in the field of engineering mathematics. His tutor was the famous Prof. Dr. R. Timman. Hermans continued working on diffraction of high-frequency waves under his supervision and finally received his doctorate in October 1968 with a thesis about "High-frequency scattering by a convex smooth object".
He remained loyal to the subject and the university and gradually followed in the footsteps of his mentor. Initially he taught and researched as a lecturer at the Delft University of Technology, since 1974 in the subject of applied mathematics and since 1980 as professor for mathematical physics.
This resulted in an extensive opus. He dealt – beside excursions into other fields of physics – with many problems of ship hydrodynamics including: non-linear drift forces and anchoring, wave resistance, maneuvring. Also the use of wave energy belonged to his activities. Most intensively, he concentrated on everything regarding wave development on ships with low Froude numbers.
He did presentations on important international congresses and published in known journals. For one year, he was guest researcher on the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of the New York University and one semester guest professor at the University of Delaware. Proving his work's orientation towards application and its usability, he advises for almost 30 years the Maritime Research Institute MARIN in Wageningen.
Aad J. Hermans retired in 2006.
Last update: January 2018