Dr. Lothar Birk joined the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at UNO in 2004. Since 2007 he is a registered professional engineer in the State of Louisiana. He received his academic training at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany where he earned a diploma in naval architecture in 1990 and received his doctorate in 1998. From 1991 to 2004 he worked in various positions at Technische Universität Berlin, finally leading the Dynamics of Marine Systems Division from 1998 until he joined UNO. From 2002 to 2003 he had the pleasure of joining the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as a visiting professor.
Dr. Birk is the undergraduate program advisor for the B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering program and serves as the department chair since 2010. Since joining UNO he has developed 10 different undergraduate and graduate courses and currently teaches various topics related to ship and offshore structure hydrodynamics, computer aided design, and optimization.
Numerous master theses and projects as well as dissertations have been completed under his mentorship. He has received several student and professional awards for his excellence in teaching.
Main objective of Dr. Birk's research work is the integration of advanced numerical analysis into the design process of maritime systems. His dissertation was honored with the Georg-Weinblum Award by the Weinblum Foundation of the Schiffbautechnische Gesellschaft e.V. (STG). In 2009 his presentation on hull shape optimization was awarded the Best Technical Innovation Award by the Deep Offshore Technology International Conference. He has authored numerous conference papers, reports, and journal papers.