Spyros Kinnas

Spyros Kinnas is the Hudson Matlock Professor in Civil Engineering and Associate Director of the Offshore Technology Research Center (OTRC) at The University of Texas at Austin. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT in Ocean Engineering and has been a faculty member at UT Austin since 1995. His research focuses on computational hydrodynamics, cavitation, and propulsor design, with notable contributions to boundary element methods (BEM) and viscous vorticity equation (VISVE) modeling.

Education: Ph.D., MIT (1985); B.S., National Technical University of Athens (1981). He has held multiple prestigious roles, including Carroll Allen Teaching Fellow and Phil M. Ferguson Centennial Teaching Fellow. His technical interests span ocean engineering, computational hydrodynamics, and propulsion system design.

Research Interests: His work emphasizes numerical methods for fluid-structure interaction, cavitation dynamics, and renewable energy systems like tidal turbines. He leads the Computational Hydrodynamics Laboratory (CHL) at UT Austin, developing advanced models for propeller performance and hydrodynamic analysis.

Publications: Over 150 peer-reviewed articles, focusing on BEM applications, VISVE method advancements, and propeller/duct optimization. Recent trends include interdisciplinary studies on tidal energy systems and noise reduction in marine propulsion.

• Awards: Ervin S. Perry Award (2008), Department Teaching Award (2009), SNAME Fellow.
• Committees: Member of SNAME Panel H-8, Editorial Boards of multiple journals including Journal of Ship Research and Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering.
• Grants/Advising: Supervised over 50 graduate students and postdocs, with active projects on tidal turbines and propeller-hull interaction. Leads OTRC-sponsored short courses on offshore engineering.

Labs/Teams: Director of the Computational Hydrodynamics Laboratory (CHL), collaborating on projects like the VISVE method and boundary element modeling for marine systems.