Regents approve appointment of Professor David R. Dowling as ABS faculty chair

The Regents have approved the appointment of David R. Dowling as the ABS Professor of Marine and Offshore Design Performance, for a five-year renewable term, effective February 1, 2023, through January 31, 2028.

The ABS Professorship in Marine and Offshore Design Performance was established by the Regents in September 2015 with gifts from the American Bureau of Shipping. Appointments to this professorship may be up to five years and may be renewed.

David R. Dowling completed his doctorate in 1988 at Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology and moved north to Seattle to accommodate his wife’s career in medicine. While there, he worked for a year in the Laser Technology Section of Boeing Aerospace, and then for almost three years as a postdoctoral scientist at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the University of Washington. In 1992, he accepted a faculty position in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Then, after 29 years, he moved to become Chair of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Prof. Dowling is currently conducting research in acoustics and fluid mechanics. He teaches courses in these subjects and in experimental techniques. He is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the American Physical Society – Division of Fluid Dynamics.

Professor Dowling’s research covers a variety of topics in acoustics and fluid mechanics, and combines experimental, theoretical, and computational techniques. These projects are linked by the fact that moving fluids and acoustic fields both arise from the same conservation equations. Approximately half of Professor Dowling’s research projects are collaborative efforts and involve other faculty from the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering. Support for these research projects has come from the Office of Naval Research, Naval Sea Systems Command, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and several industrial sponsors.