The work of Dominique Roddier (Ph.D.’00 Naval Architecture) and Christian Cermelli (M.S.’90, Ph.D.’95 Naval Architecture) (both of whom were guided to their PhDs by Professor R. W. Yeung) is featured in the November 2009 issue of Innovations, the online journal of research and news in the College of Engineering at Berkeley.

In conjunction with Seattle-based Principle Power, their company, Marine Innovation and Technology, is developing a prototype for Portuguese power company Energias de Portugal that will be installed in Portuguese waters in 2011.

Although Roddier and Cermelli both are from France and have mutual interests in naval architecture, they never met before arriving at Berkeley. While at Berkeley, they discovered that their parents live just a few miles from each other in southern France. Each of them met and married Architecture students at Berkeley.

Roddier and Cermelli both were supported financially by ONR grants when they were graduate students and worked on damping characteristics of plates and bilge keels (the sharp-edged objects at the bottom of their now famed Minifloat platforms). Both were strong in theory and in working with their hands on experiments.

After graduation, one of them went to Exxon (now known as Exxon-Mobil), and the other to Shell International, both in Houston, and they found their professional interests and their contacts in the offshore hydrocarbon energy area. The "Mini-Float" is their invention and patent.

A very hard-working student, Dominique Roddier collaborated with fellow student Shih-wei Liao to win a Best-Student Paper award ten years ago for a paper that was not required for either's thesis work. It was on the ME web site.

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