Prof Dominic A Hudson BEng, PhD, CEng, MIMechE, MRINA
Shell Professor of Ship Safety and Efficiency, Head of the Fluid Structure Interactions Group

Prof Dominic A Hudson is Shell Professor of Ship Safety and Efficiency within Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
Current Position
I am a currently the Shell Professor of Ship Safety and Efficiency at the University of Southampton and have research interests in all aspects of ship hydrodynamics, from the motions of high-speed craft to energy efficiency of large commercial ships. I am a member of the Performance Sports Engineering laboratory, working with UK Sport on projects for Bob Skeleton and British Swimming and continuing my long-standing interest in yacht performance. I am a member of the Fluid-structure interactions research group and the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute. My teaching is in the areas of ship design and prediction of ship power requirements in calm water and for more realistic operation.
Honours and Awards
September 2013 | Landrini Award for contributions to the International Community in the field of Numerical Ship Hydrodynamics (first ever UK recipient) |
July 2008 | Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Award for innovative teaching in Ship Design |
April 2005 | Royal Institution of Naval Architects Medal for paper of distinction |
April 2004 | Royal Institution of Naval Architects Samuel Baxter Prize |
April 2004 | Royal Institution of Naval Architects Bronze Medal for paper of distinction |
April 2002 | Royal Institution of Naval Architects Wakeham Prize |
April 2002 | Royal Institution of Naval Architects Bronze Medal for paper of distinction |
March 2002 | Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Secondment Award |
Career History
From an interest in sailing and engineering whilst at school, I chose to study Ship Science (or naval architecture) at Southampton. My third year project was on the motions of high-speed catamaran vessels – used as car and passenger ferries – and after graduating with a first class degree I was sufficiently interested to continue with this research topic as a part-time PhD student and Research Assistant, completing my PhD in 1999.
In order to gain industrial experience to improve my teaching, I spent a Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Secondment period working as a consultant naval architect with Three Quays Marine Services in London in 2003 and was appointed a Senior Lecturer in 2005. I was Course Coordinator for the Ship Science degree courses from 2008-2011 and Director of Programmes from 2011-2013. I am a Chartered Engineer and member of both the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
With my research interests I have been involved with both the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress (ISSC) and the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC). For the ISSC I was a member of the specialist committees for Very Large Floating Structures (2003-2006) and Sailing Yacht Design (2006-2009) and for the ITTC a member of the special task committee on high speed marine vehicles (2008-2011). I am currently a member of the ITTC Seakeeping committee (2011-2014).
Through my work at Southampton I have spent periods as a visiting lecturer at Yokohama National University, Japan (2008) and visiting Associate Professor at Nanyang Technical University, Singapore (2011, 2012, 2013). From October-December 2013 I am a visiting research scientist with the Institute for High Performance Computing in Singapore as part of the IHPC-SMMI Joint laboratory in Maritime and Offshore Engineering.