Dr. Simons Part-time Professor ‘Seafloor Mapping’ at Delft University of Technology
The Executive Board of Delft University of Technology (DUT) has appointed Dr. Dick G. Simons as professor of the new chair ‘Seafloor Mapping’. A co-operation of DUT with TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory (TNO-FEL) in The Hague has enabled the establishment of the chair. Dr. Simons has his main position at TNO-FEL, where he leads research programmes in underwater acoustics. He will fulfil his professorship on a part-time basis and has started his activities on 15 March 2004.
The chair ‘Seafloor Mapping’ focuses on seafloor classification, fusion of topography data at land-sea transitions, modelling of acoustic multi-beam systems (including underwater acoustic propagation aspects) and deformation studies of the seafloor topography.
There are many conceivable applications in, for instance, geology: neo-tectonic activity, sediment transport, time evolution of seafloor morphology (e.g. sand waves and sand banks). Furthermore, an improved insight into the behaviour of the seafloor is of great importance in marine biology, hydrography and navigation, and in coastal engineering (i.e., large-scale sand extraction, the offshore and development of wind farms at sea).
