Som Deo Sharma
University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
9th Georg Weinblum Memorial Lecture (1986/87)
Bemerkungen zum sogenannten Vorgeschichtseinfluß in der Schiffshydrodynamik
Short Biography
Som Deo Sharma is a professor of naval architecture. He was born in India (1937) and educated at the Rajputana University in Jaipur and at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur (B.Tech., 1957). Soon after graduation, he came to Germany to work at the Flender Shipyard in Lübeck (1957–60). In 1959, he first met Georg Weinblum at Hamburg and was immediately enchanted. Under Weinblum's paternal guidance and encouragement he earned his doctorate from Technical University of Hanover (1965) and eventually settled down in Germany.
He was long employed as a research engineer at the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (1972–81) before joining the university faculty in 1982. His research highlights have been the application of wave and wake analysis to bulbous bow ships, the study of maritime collision avoidance as a differential game, the design of computerised planar motion carriage (CPMC) for ship model experiments, and the development of an algorithm for simulating ship manoeuvres in four quadrants.
Ever since he first visited the United States in 1963, Professor Sharma has been ardent admirer of America, which he regards as his third home besides India and Germany. He has served as visiting research associate and professor at the University of Michigan (1968–70) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978–79).
[The short biography is taken from the invitation letter for the Weinblum Memorial Lecture held by Som Deo Sharma. Some slight modifications have been made when deemed necessary.]