Rate My Professor Lars Johanning

Professor Lars Johanning serves as Chair in Ocean Technology and Associate Head of School (Research) in the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics at the University of Plymouth, part of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Since 1997, he has conducted research on hydrodynamic topics related to marine structures and is internationally recognized as a leading expert in ocean energy and technology, with a primary focus on hydrodynamics and station keeping systems. Johanning spearheaded the development of the Falmouth Bay marine energy test site (FaBTest), enabling successful deployments of wave energy devices by Fred. Olsen and Polygen. He contributes expert advice to the IEC/TC114 mooring standards committee, previously served on the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult Research Advisory Group, and supports the EU Ocean Energy Roadmap. His career includes prior roles as Program Director for FaBTest and the Marine-i Hub, an ERDF-funded initiative within the Marine Hub Cornwall Enterprise Zone aimed at fostering business-led R&D in marine sectors.

Johanning's extensive project portfolio features principal investigator roles in initiatives such as the Industrial Doctoral Centre for Offshore Renewables (IDCORE, EP/J500847/1), Horizon 2020 OPERA (654444), EPSRC UKCMER, and ongoing efforts including WEDUSEA (EU Horizon Europe) for wave technology demonstration, MoorWEC (UKRI EPSRC) for innovative wave energy converter moorings, and OcEn for ocean energy contributions to carbon neutrality. Additional research covers dynamic responses of mono-towers in steep waves (GR/N04522/01), station keeping reliability for offshore renewables (GR/S26958/01, EP/M014738/1, EP/P008682/1), and aquaculture system hydrodynamics (BB/M005208/1), alongside European collaborations like CORES, DTOcean, Marinet 1 & 2, and UK-China projects on floating offshore wind. Internationally, he co-chairs China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development task teams on ocean energy (Phase VII, 2022-2027) and renewables (Phase VI, 2017-2022), and holds visiting professorships at Dalian University of Technology, ENSTA Bretagne, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His work advances reliability, deployment, and sustainability in offshore renewables.