Dr. Chris Swan

Biography

Chris Swan is an Emeritus Professor of Hydrodynamics in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. With a professional focus on hydrodynamics, his principal research interests involve surface water waves, emphasizing extreme wave events and their interaction with both fixed and floating structures. His work spans applications in deep-water offshore and shallow-water coastal environments, benefiting from funding provided by the offshore oil and gas industry, maritime shipping industries, and coastal engineering sectors. Professor Swan has been an esteemed academic staff member at Imperial College since 1989, following the completion of his BSc in Civil Engineering at the same institution and PhD at Cambridge University. He has held the Angus Memorial Research Fellowship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Over his career, he has published more than 50 technical papers that cover various aspects of wave modeling, including descriptions of extreme wave events and their probabilities, models of water particle kinematics, wind-wave and wave-current interactions, and fluid loads related to waves' interactions with structures and vessels. His emphasis lies on experimental and numerical modeling, and he has supervised the successful completion of 11 PhD dissertations in his field. He has also secured funding for the reconstruction of a new Hydrodynamics Laboratory dedicated to the study of Civil Engineering Fluid Mechanics, which is regarded as the largest of its kind in the UK university sector, providing internationally leading facilities.

Research Interests