HR Wallingford’s John Harris Appointed RAEng Visiting Professor to UCL

HR Wallingford Technical Director, John Harris, has been appointed Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Coastal and Offshore Engineering at UCL (University College London) within the Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering Department.

John takes up the appointment from September 2017, and will contribute to UCL’s current degree programmes, including inputting expertise into multi-disciplinary design projects, strengthening the applied aspects of existing modules, guiding the curriculum development of new modules, and co-supervising third year research projects.

John’s contribution is also expected to involve developing and delivering two new modules: on the design of marine structures, and on coastal and seabed processes. These will extend the scope of work possible in Integrated Design Projects, as well as providing graduates with practical and industry knowledge.

A Technical Director in the Coasts and Oceans group, John is both a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Marine Scientist, with specialist skills in numerical hydrodynamic modelling, turbulence and sediment transport. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the application and development of turbulence models for modelling wave and wave-current boundary layer interaction in the coastal zone and 30 years’ experience in the application of numerical models for river, estuarine, coastal and offshore studies. He also has specialist knowledge of hydraulic, sediment transport and wave modelling techniques, and in particular scour and boundary layer processes and is one of the UK’s authorities on marine scour.

To date John has worked on various aspects of offshore wind farm developments, and has worked on around 80% of built or currently planned wind farms in the UK, such as Hornsea One and Two, and is the co-author of several industry guidance documents including “Dynamics Of Scour Pits And Scour Protection” and the COWRIE “Modelling Best Practice Guide”.

John was a co-recipient of the Halcrow Prize in 2011 and the David Hislop Award in 2012 presented by the Institution of Civil Engineers.