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Paul Sclavounos

More About Paul

Contact Info

room 5-320

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

77 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

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Associated Research Areas

Faculty Details

Education

  • 1977

    NATIONAL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS

    B.Sc.

  • 1981

    MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT)

    Ph.D.

Research Interests

Marine hydrodynamics

Stochastic control

Offshore wind energy

Wave energy

Machine learning

Marine modular nuclear batteries

Offshore wind energy storage

Tidal energy

Offshore solar energy

Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion and Flow Noise Control

Magnetohydrodynamic Liquid Metal Micro Nuclear Reactor Pumps

 

Honors + Awards

  • First prize in national mathematics competition 1972
  • Georg Weinblum Memorial Lecturer 2010-2011
  • Keynote Lecturer OMAE 2013 Conference
  • Invited Speaker Offshore Korea Conference 2016
  • Keynote Speaker AVANGRID 2018 Innovation Forum Yale School of Management
  • Keynote Lecturer 1st International Offshore Wind Technical Conference 2018
  • Invited Speaker Greek Shipping Summit "2020: The Wind of Change in Global Shipping" Eugenides Foundation 2019 
  • Invited Speaker MIT Portugal Conference "The Atlantic as a Platform for Science and Technological Impact" Azores 2019
  • Best Paper Award Offshore Mechanics Ocean and Arctic Engineering Conference OMAE 2019
  • Invited Speaker HELMEPA Conference "The Road to Decarbonization: Is IMO Target Possible by 2050?" Posidonia 2020
  • Invited Speaker MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Center Member Webinar on "Offshore Wind Turbines" May 2020
  • Invited Speaker World Knowledge Forum "Floating Wind Turbines, Machine Learning and Decarbonization of the Shipping Sector" September 2021
  • Invited Speaker MIT Energy Initiative Spring Symposium, March 22nd, 2023 "Design of Floating Wind Turbines"
  • Invited Webinar RWWWFB, April 28th, 2023 "Topics in Nonlinear Marine Hydrodynamics and Ocean Renewable Energy Conversion"
  • Invited Presentation DARPA PUMP Program, May 31st, 2023 "Magnetohydrodynamic Induction and Conduction Pump Jet Propulsors"
  • AEOLOS Scientific Award, Hellenic Wind Energy Association, Global Wind Day, June 13th, 2024
  • Invited Presentation on Magnetohydrodynamic Propulsion for Undersea Vehicles. In Person Event. SNAME New York Metropolitan Section, February 12th, 2026

Related Experience

  • 1985-present Director Laboratory for Ship and Platform Flows
  • 1983 Visiting Professor; Ecole Nationale Superieure de Techniques Avancees (ENSTA) Paris, France
  • 1985-1986 Visiting Professor; Department of Applied Mathematics. University of Adelaide Australia
  • 1987-1988 Visiting Professor; Department of Engineering Science. California Institute of Technology
  • 1989 Visiting Professor; Department of Mathematics. University of Oslo, Norway
  • 1992 Visiting Professor; Department of Mechanics. University of Paris. January

Memberships

  • Member, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME)
  • Associate Editor of Applied Ocean Research
  • Associate Editor of Journal of Ship Research
  • Associate Editor of Journal of Engineering Mathematics
  • Advisory Board Journal of Ocean Engineering and Marine Energy

Professional Service

  • Chief Scientist of 1992 & 1995 America's Cup Cyndicates (1987-1996)
  • Member of the Board of North American Committee of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) (1997- Present)
  • US Navy DDX Theory Advisory Panel (2006-present)
  • Member of US Department of Energy Advisory Board on Offshore Wind Demonstration Projects
  • Advisory Board of Norwegian Research Centre for Offshore Wind Technology (NOWITECH) (2009-present)

MIT Service

  • 2004-present Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, MIT
  • 1993-2004 Professor of Naval Architecture, MIT
  • 1985-1993 Associate Professor of Naval Architecture, MIT
  • 1981-1985 Assistant Professor of Naval Architecture, MIT

Teaching

Publications

  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Kelly, J. (2027). Seawater Magnetohydrodynamic Induction Pumps for Marine Vehicles.
  • Daus, J. J. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2025). Development and Design of a Magnetohydrodynamic Annular Linear Induction Propulsor for Submarines. American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) Technology Systems & Ship (TSS) Symposium. George Mason University Arlington Campus, November 17-18, 2025.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Daus, J. J. (2024, 2026). Magnetohydrodynamic Induction Pump Jet Propulsor.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Dickerman, M. F. (2025). Micro Nuclear Reactor Array for Containership Propulsion.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Scali, W. T. (2025). Magnetohydrodynamic Induction Marine Energy Harvester.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Mannier, R. B. (2025). Shrouded Tension Leg Platform Marine Energy Turbine.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Athanasopoulos, P. R. (2025). Offshore Floating Solar with Compressed Air Storage as Baseload Power Plant for Data Center.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Gkiokas, C. (2024). Synthetic Mooring Lines for Floating Wind Turbines.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Alus, A. and Cho, W. (2024). Offshore Floating Tidal Turbines: A Renewable and Predictable Energy Resource.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Zhang, F., Stone, L. and Wunderlich, A. (2022). Electromagnetically Levitated Modular Inertial Harvesters of Marine Energy. MIT-Portugal Program Annual Conference, Aveiro, Portugal, September 20th, 2022.
  • Larson, D. F. H. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2021). A Quasi Monte Carlo Iterative Spectral Method for Time-Parallel Nonlinear Seakeeping Computations. 9th International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering, MARINE 2021, June 2-4, Edinburg, Scotland.
  • Silva, J. M. M., Viera, S. M., Valerio, D., Henriques, J. C. C. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2021). Air Pressure Forecasting for the Mutriku Oscillating-Water-Column Wave Power Plant: Review and Case Study. IET Renewable Power Generation.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2020). Offshore Wind Turbines. MIT Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Center Webinar.
  • Ma, Y. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2020). Support Vector Machines Model of the Nonlinear Hydrodynamics of Fixed Cylinders. Journal of Offshore Mechanics Ocean and Arctic Engineering, 143(5): 051701.
  • Ma, Y., Larson, D. F. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2020). Support Vector Machines Learning Model of Nonlinear Viscous Ship Roll Hydrodynamics. 33rd Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, October 18-23, Osaka, Japan.
  • Sclavounos, P., Mazarakis, N. and Katsanos, N. (2020). Flettner Rotor Sails for Ship Propulsion. Naftikachronika Magazine, English Edition, March 2020 Issue.
  • Zhang, Y. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2019). Nonlinear Wave Loads on Offshore Wind Turbines: Extreme Statistics and Fatigue. 38th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2019, June 9-14, Glasgow, Scotland. Expanded version published in Journal of Offshore Mechanics Ocean and Arctic Engineering, 143(4): 042002.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2018). Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning in Marine Hydrodynamics. Slide Presentation.
  • Ma, Y., Sclavounos, P. D., Cross-Whiter, J. and Arora, D. (2018). Wave Forecast and its Application to the Optimal Control of Offshore Floating Wind Turbine for Load Mitigation. Renewable Energy, Vol. 128, Part A, pp. 163-176.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Larson, D. F. H. and Ma, Y. (2018). Ship Stability in a Seastate by the State-Space Fokker-Plank Method. 32nd Symposium of Naval Hydrodynamics, August 5-10, Hamburg, Germany.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Ma, E. (2018). Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning in Marine Hydrodynamics. 37th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2018, June 17-22, Madrid, Spain.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Ma, E. (2018). Wave Energy Conversion using Machine Learning Forecasts and Model Predictive Control. 33rd International Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies. April 4-7, Brest, France.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Zhang, Y., Ma, E. Y. and Larson, D. (2017). “Offshore Wind Turbine Nonlinear Wave Loads and Their Statistics”. Proceedings of the ASME 35th Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2017, June 25-30, Trondheim, Norway. Expanded version published in Journal of Offshore Mechanics Ocean and Arctic Engineering, 2019, 141(3).
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2016). Nonlinear Loads on a Vertical Cylinder in Irregular Waves. 31st International Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies. April 3-6, 2016, Plymouth, Michigan.
  • Godine, K.-Y. Chan, Sclavounos, P. D., Jonkman, J. and Hayman, G. (2015). Computations of Nonlinear Hydrodynamic Loads on Offshore Wind Turbines by Fluid Impulse Theory. Proceedings of the ASME 34th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, OMAE 2015, May 31-June 5, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2012). Karhunen-Loeve Representation of Stochastic Ocean Waves. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, Vol. 468, pp. 2574-2594.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Lee, S. (2012). A Fluid Impulse Nonlinear Theory of Ship Motions and Sea Loads. 29th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, Gothenburg, Sweden, August 26-31. Published in International Shipbuilding Progress (2013), Vol. 60, pp. 555-577.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2012). Nonlinear Impulse of Ocean Waves on Floating Bodies. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 697, pp. 316-335.
  • Tsouroukdissian, A. R., Fisas, A., Pratts, P. (ALSTOM) and Sclavounos, P. D. (MIT) (2011). Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Concept Analysis. American Wind Energy Association WINDPOWER 2011 Conference and Exhibition, Anaheim CA, May 22-25.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2010). Modeling, Pricing and Risk Management of Assets and Derivatives in Energy and Shipping. Chapter in Encyclopedia of Financial Models. Edited by Frank Fabozzi.  Wiley & Sons Inc.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2010). A Fluid Impulse Theory for the Nonlinear Loads, Responses and Stability of Ships and Floating Structures in Steep Random Waves. Technical Report. Laboratory for Ship and Platform Flows. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Lee, S., DiPietro, J. (MIT), Potenza, G., Caramuscio, P. and De Michele G. (ENEL) (2010). Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Tension Leg Platform and Taught Leg Buoy Concepts Supporting 3-5 MW Wind Turbines. European Wind Energy Conference EWEC 2010, Warsaw, Poland, April 20-23.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Ellefsen, P. E. (2009). Multi-Factor Model of Correlated Commodity-Forward Curves for Crude Oil and Shipping Markets. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working paper. Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEPR).
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Tracy, C. and Lee, S. (2008).  Floating Offshore Wind Turbines: Responses in a Seastate, Pareto Optimal Designs and Economic Assessment. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference OMAE 2008, Lisbon, Portugal.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Thomas, B. S. and Ulusoy, T. (2006). Optimal Ship Maneuvering and Seakeeping by Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) Controllers. 26th Naval Hydrodynamics Conference, Rome, Italy, September 17-22.
  • Thomas, B. S. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2006). Optimal Control Theory Applied to Ship Maneuvering in Restricted Waters. Readings in Marine Hydrodynamics, Volume Published in Honor of Professor J. Nicholas Newman. Paul D. Sclavounos, Editor.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2006). Interesections between Marine Hydrodynamics and Optimal Control Theory. 21st International Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies, Loughborough, England, April 2006.
  • Chatzakis, I. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2006). Active Motion Control of High-Speed Hydrofoil Vessels by State-Space Methods. Journal of Ship Research, March 2006.
  • Wayman, E. N. and Sclavounos, P. D. (MIT), Butterfield, S., Jonkman, J. and Musial, W. (NREL) (2006). Coupled Dynamic Modeling of Floating Wind Turbine Systems. Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), Houston, Texas, May 1-4, 2006.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Wayman, E. N. (MIT), Butterfield, S., Jonkman, J. and Musial, W. (NREL) (2006). Floating Wind Turbine Concepts. European Wind Energy Association Conference (EWAC), Athens, Greece, 27 February - 2 March, 2006.
  • Jonkman, J. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2006). Development of Fully Coupled Aeroelastic and Hydrodynamic Models for Offshore Wind Turbines. AIAA Conference, Reno, Nevada, January 2006.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (2005). Nonlinear Particle Kinematics of Ocean Waves. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 540, pp. 133-142.
  • Lee, K., Sclavounos, P. D. and Wayman, E. N. (2005). Floating Wind Turbines. 20th Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies - Spitsbergen , Norway - May 29 to June 1, 2005.
  • Withee, J. E. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2004). Fully Coupled Dynamic Analysis of a Floating Wind Turbine System. 8th World Renewable Energy Congress, DenverColorado.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Borgen, H. (2004). Seakeeping Analysis of a High-Speed Monohull with a Motion Control Bow Hydrofoil. Journal of Ship Research, 48 (02), pp. 77-117.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Purvin, S., Talha, U. and Kim, S. (2003). Simulation Based Resistance and Seakeeping Performance of High-Speed Monohull and Multihull Vessels Equipped With Motion Control Lifting Appendages. Keynote Lecture, FAST 2003 Conference, Ichia Italy. 
  • Li, Y. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2002). Nonlinear Three-Dimensional Solitary Waves Generated by High-Speed Vessels Advancing in Shallow Waters. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 470, pp. 383-410.
  • Kim, S. and Sclavounos, P. D. (2001). Fully Coupled Response Simulations of Theme Offshore Structures in Water Depths of Up to 10,000 Feet. 11th ISOPE Conference, Stavanger, Norway.
  • Kim, Y. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1998). A Finite-Depth Unified Theory for the Linear and Second-Order Problems of Slender Ships. Journal of Ship Research, Vol. 42 (04), pp.297–309.
  • Emmerhoff, O. J. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1997). The Simulation of Slow-Drift Motions of Offshore Structures. Applied Ocean Research. Vol. 18, Issues 2-3, pp. 55-64.
  • Kim, Y. W., Kring, D. C. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1997). Linear and Nonlinear Interactions of Surface Waves with Bodies by a Three-Dimensional Rankine Panel Method. Applied Ocean Research, Vol 19, Issues 5-6, pp. 235-249.
  • Kim, S., Sclavounos, P. D. and Nielsen, F. G. (1997). Slow-Drift Responses of Moored Platforms. BOSS 97 Conference, United Kingdom.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Huang, Y.-F. (1997). Rudder Winglets on Sailing Yachts. Marine Technology, Vol. 34, No 3.
  • Sclavounos, P. D., Kring, D. C., Huang, Y. F., Mantzaris, D. A., Kim, S. G., and Kim, Y. W. (1997). A Computational Method as an Advanced Tool of Ship Hydrodynamic Design. Transactions of SNAME, 105:375–397.
  • Kring, D. C., Huang, Y. F., Sclavounos, P. D., Vada, T. and Braathen, A. (1996). Nonlinear Ship Motions and Wave Induced Loads by a Rankine Panel Method, 21st Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, Trondheim, pp. 45–63.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (1995). Computations of Wave Ship Interactions. Chapter in Book Titled: “Advances in Marine Hydrodynamics”, M. Ohkusu Editor. Computational Mechanics Publication.
  • Kring, D. C. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1995). Numerical Stability Analysis for Time-Domain Ship Motion Simulations. Journal of Ship Research, Vol. 39 no. 4, Dec 1995, p 313.
  • Nakos, D. E. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1994). Kelvin Wakes and Wave Resistance of Cruiser and Transom Stern Ships. Journal of Ship Research, Vol. 38 no. 1, March 1994, pp. 9-23.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (1994). Slow-Drift Oscillations of Compliant Offshore Platforms. Proceedings 7th BOSS Conference, Boston.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Nakos, D. E. (1993). Seakeeping and Added Resistance of IACC Yachts by a Three-Dimensional Panel Method. 11th Chesapeake Sailing Yacht Symposium, pp. 247-260.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (1992). On the Quadratic Effect of Random Gravity Waves on a Vertical Boundary. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Vol. 242, pp. 475-489.
  • Emmerhoff, O. J. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1992). The Slow-Drift Motion of Arrays of Vertical Cylinders. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Vol 242, pp. 31-50.
  • Kring D. C. and Sclavounos P. D. (1991). New Method for Analyzing the Seakeeping of Multi-Hull Ships. Proceedings FAST91 Conference, Trondheim.
  • Nakos, D. E. and Sclavounos, P., D. (1990). Steady and Unsteady Ship Wave Patterns. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 215, pp. 265-288.
  • Lee, C.-H. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1989). Removing the Irregular Frequencies from Integral Equations in Wave-Body Interactions. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 207, pp. 393-418.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (1988). Radiation and Diffraction of Second-Order Surface Waves by Floating Bodies. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Vol. 196, pp. 65-91.
  • Sclavounos, P.D. and Nakos, D. E. (1988). Stability Analysis of Panel Methods for Free Surface Flow with Forward Speed. Proceedings of the 17th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, The Hague, The Netherlands, 29 August–2 September.
  • Korsmeyer, F. T., Lee, C.-H., Newman, J. N. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1988). The Analysis of Wave Effects on Tension-Leg Platforms. OMAE Conference, Houston.
  • Newman, J. N. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1988). The Computation of Wave Ship Interactions. BOSS 88 Conference, Trondheim, Norway.
  • Sclavounos, P. D.  An Unsteady Lifting Line Theory. Journal of Engineering Mathematics. Vol. 21, pp. 201-226.
  • Breit, S. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1986). Wave Interaction Between Adjacent Slender Bodies. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Vol 165, pp. 273-296.
  • Breit, S., Newman, J. N. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1985). A New Generation of Panel Programs for Radiation Diffraction Programs. BOSS 85, Delft, pp. 531-544.
  • Sclavounos P. D. (1984). The Diffraction of Free-Surface Waves by a Slender Ship. Journal of Ship Research, Vol. 28, no. 1, p. 29-47.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. and Lee, C.-H. (1983). Topics on Boundary-Element Solutions of Wave Radiation-Diffraction Problems. Proceedings 4th International Conference on Numerical Ship Hydrodynamics, Washington DC, pp. 175-184.
  • Sclavounos, P. D. (1981). The Interaction of an Incident Wave Field with a Floating Slender Body at Zero Speed. Proceedings 3rd International Conference on Numerical Ship Hydrodynamics.
  • Newman, J. N. and Sclavounos, P. D. (1980). The Unified Theory of Ship Motions. 13th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics, Tokyo, Japan, 6-10 October.