Friendships

Dear Professor Nowacki,

The three of us – Soo-Young Kim, Andreas Kraus and Nelson Bianco Standerski – came from Korea, Germany and Brazil. All of us had studied Naval Architecture, but with different backgrounds. We shared an office in the rooms of your Ship Design Section on the Severin site from 1984 to 1987.

Here we worked on our PhD theses, which had very different focuses. And that is something we have always admired about you: The versatility of your professional interests. You brought geometric modelling, computational fluid dynamics and classical ship theory together in computational ship design, with the different subfields being covered in research projects, dissertations, theses and lectures. In addition, you were active in countless committees, and yet you always found time to supervise the large number of scientific staff and doctoral students – without restricting us too much.

So we were able to learn a lot from you in terms of technical knowledge, but looking back we think that the open, international atmosphere in which we were able to work was at least as important. In the daily conversations in our office, we learned a lot about each other’s countries and friendships developed. Contacts with other Section staff also lasted for years.

Kim Soo-Young became a professor at Pusan National University after his time in Berlin, Andreas Kraus became a professor at Bremen University of Applied Sciences after more than 10 years at HDW, a shipyard in Kiel, and Nelson Standerski worked in the logistics industry in Brazil and Canada. Nelson unfortunately already passed away in 2015.

Prof. Nowacki with Kim Soo-Young in Korea

Dear Professor Nowacki, we thank you for your support in Berlin and at the start of our professional life after the TU. And we thank you in particular for creating an environment at your department in which friendships could develop. We really had a good time.

We wish you all the best for your 90th birthday!

Kim Soo-Young, Andreas Kraus and Corine Standerski – for Nelson