Stanley Gray Fellowship awarded for performance enhancement of Modern Downwind Sails
We are delighted to announce that Jean-Baptiste Roger Guillaume Souppez has been awarded the prestigious Stanley Gray fellowship for his PhD research.
Jean-Baptise has a BEng (Hons) in Yacht and Powercraft Design from Southampton Solent University, England, an MEng in Yacht Engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Yacht Design and Composite Engineering at Solent University, where he teaches on the prestigious BEng (Hons) Yacht and Powercraft Design, BEng (Hons) Yacht Design and Production and MSc Superyacht Design and is a Visiting Professor and Research Supervisor on the international Erasmus Mundus Master in Integrated Advanced Ship Design (EMship+). He is the UK Principal Expert in Small Craft Structures, where he represents the interest of the British Marine Industry in the development of international structural regulations.
“Being awarded the Stanley Gray Fellowship for 'Performance Enhancement of Modern Downwind Sails' was a tremendous recognition, and provided a significant boost to this novel research. The much-appreciated support received from the IMarEST has generated a strong interest in the project, and facilitated the research cooperation between Solent University and the University of Edinburgh, where the experimental force measurements and flow visualisation experiments are undertaken. While the investigation is primarily intended at refining spinnaker design for high-performance racing yachts, the strength of the project lies in its versatility and potential to support the development of performance and sustainability across an array of industries. Indeed, by furthering the understanding of a simplified geometry, in this instance a highly-cambered thin circular arc, the scope of industrial applications is very much broadened. Consequently, the findings are applicable not only to racing yacht sails but also wind-assisted ships, bio-inspired engineering, as well as the renewables, aeronautical and automotive industries. As a testimony to the highly transferable outcomes of this research, I have been invited to lecture on the early findings by both the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Mercedes AGM Petronas Formula One team. Furthermore, a particular area of interest is the Leading-Edge Vortex (LEV). This flow phenomenon, originally employed on supersonic fighter jets in the 1960s, was more recently evidenced as being the mechanism behind the ability of insects and birds to fly. Therefore, being able to exploit this could lead to greater lift generation and would enable us to refine by design - yacht sails, wind and tidal turbine blades, wings and more. Ultimately, the Stanley Gray Fellowship will promote new developments addressing the contemporary challenges of the marine sector, thanks to the commitment of the IMarEST to back maritime research across engineering, science and technology.” Jean-Baptiste Roger Guillaume Souppez, winner of the Stanley Gray Fellowship
The Stanley Gray Fellowship
The IMarEST awards a number of Stanley Gray Fellowships every year to selected candidates judged to be of outstanding potential to enable a significant piece of work to be undertaken in an approved marine engineering/science/technology subject to Doctorate (PhD) or post-Doctorate level.
The award is based upon a written submission and an interview conducted by a number of senior members of the Institute with expertise covering marine engineering, marine science and technology. Stanley Gray was the Chief Mechanical Engineer at the Port Directorate of Basra during the 1950s & 60s.
Read more about the award here.