Officers

Jan van Smirren - Hon Secretary

Since graduating with B.Sc. in Geology and Oceanography (1981) and M.Sc in Oceanography (1982) Mr. van Smirren has gained over 25 years of experience in commercial oceanography and has been with Fugro GEOS, an oceanographic and meteorological (metocean) consultancy for 17 years. As President Fugro GEOS Inc. he is responsible for all of Fugro GEOS? activities in the Americas region. Such activities range from the provision of metocean measurement, monitoring, consultancy and forecasting services to a broad range of client organizations that encompass the international oil and gas industry, local and national government organizations, ports and harbors and associated maritime industries.

Don Schlater - Hon Treasurer

Don has held both Technical and Sales management rolls with the Castrol group of BP since late 1997. Prior to that he was the Director of Projects for FSSL (now Aker Solution). From 1986 to 1993 he started, developed and was General Manager for MacDermid Offshore Solutions business (formerly Marston Bentley). Prior to this he was product manager for Drilling Controls and Motion Compensation systems for Shaffer now National Oilwell Varco. He began his oilfield career with Exxon Production research after his USAF stay. He was an Air Force project manager at the Air Force Weapons lab working in the area of Nuclear weapons effect research. He did both undergraduate and graduate work in Mechanical engineering at Tulane University.

Christopher Curran - Hon Chairperson

Christopher is the Team Leader for Subsea Controls and HIPPS in BP s Deepwater Facilities Flagship, developing new technology for deep water applications. He is also the Chairman of several API committees for subsea controls (17F), HIPPS (17O) and subsea safety systems (17V). He has over 30 years experience of subsea systems, concentrating primarily on subsea production control systems. Experience includes shallow water and deep water systems for around the world including North Sea, Asia, Australia, West Africa and Gulf of Mexico. Christopher has a degree in Physics from Bristol University and is the founding Chairman of the Society for Underwater Technology s Houston Branch. He is a Fellow of the SUT and a Chartered engineer.

Dr. Bob Allwood - CEO

Dr Bob Allwood graduated from the University of Reading, UK, with a 1st class honours degree in physics and obtained his PhD from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. After working in the field of physics research for some five years at Heriot-Watt University and in industry, he then turned his attention to the problems of working in the underwater environment. Over the coming years he was to work the University?s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering on ROV development and then as Manager of Engineering in the University?s Institute of Offshore Engineering. He moved to Cranfield University in 1986 as Senior Lecturer in Underwater Technology and undertook research aimed at the improvement of underwater vision. During this time he served on a number of SUT committees and was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1994. Later he was to become Director of Offshore Technology at the University and in recent years developed a successful masters course in Offshore and Ocean Technology.