Bruce Colbourne
I received a
B.Eng. in naval architectural engineering from Memorial University
of Newfoundland in 1982. I was one of the first two graduates from,
what was then, a new program in naval architecture at Memorial. I
went on to obtain a S.M. in naval architecture from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. For the next two
years, I worked as a ship designer and dabbled in the development
of hovercraft icebreakers with German and Milne Inc. of Ottawa . I
returned to graduate study in 1985 and in 1989, I received a PhD in
ocean engineering from Memorial.
I joined the National Research Council Canada, Institute for Ocean
Technology (then the Institute for Marine Dynamics) in 1986 as a
research associate and for approximately 18 years worked in various
other positions including, research officer, industrial liaison
officer and group leader for Offshore Research and Acting Director
General. My research started out with developing scaling methods
for ship-ice model tests. After some years of wrestling with that
problem, I was drawn into work on floating offshore structures,
particularly FPSOs, where I extrapolated some of the scaling
methods for icebreaking ships to pack ice and iceberg impacts with
moored structures and looked at the effects of wave action in
moderating small iceberg collisions. In later years, I worked on
improving predictions for waves and current loads on aquaculture
structures, particularly the nets. I have spent most of my time
working on technology and research problems with companies, ranging
from major oil companies to small aquaculture companies. This
included five years working with the NRC Industrial Research
Assistance Program, which provides funding and advice for research
and development projects within small- and medium-sized
industries.
After quite a few years with the NRC, I joined the Faculty of
Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial as a full-time
professor. I had previously been an adjunct professor, teaching
graduate and undergraduate courses, so it was not a total shock to
become a full-time professor. I am currently working on the
STePS2 Research project as a co-investigator and project
manager. This research project is working to improve our
understanding of the forces arising from ice impacts on ships and
offshore structures, and has happily brought me back to working on
ice-structure interactions, where my research career started.
