Dr. Doug Smith

Biography

Doug Smith joined Memorial University's Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering as an assistant professor in September 2019. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees in ocean and naval architectural engineering in 2011 and 2014, respectively, from Memorial University of Newfoundland. His master's work focused on marine hydrodynamics, specifically the hydrodynamic interactions of floating bodies in close proximity. He earned his doctoral degree in ocean naval architecture from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2019, with a focus on safety management in Arctic shipping. His approach to safety considers human factors, Safety II, and resilience concepts. Smith's work in operations has been modeled and monitored using the functional resonance analysis method (FRAM) and resilience measurement techniques. Since joining Memorial, he has taught a wide variety of naval architecture courses and has actively supervised graduate students at both the master's and PhD levels. His research interests involve improving methodological frameworks that consider human factors and resilience in organizational safety contexts, utilizing novel techniques to demonstrate utility and aim for impactful contributions to safety practice. His approach to safety modeling focuses generally on socio-technical systems, though its application in naval architecture has been limited. He has led interdisciplinary collaborations involving functional modeling in healthcare and nursing community infrastructures.

Research Interests