Plenary Speakers

SPEAKERS

Meet the Leading Minds on the World Conference on Floating Solutions 2026

Meet the visionary leaders, innovators, researchers, and industry pioneers shaping the future of marine infrastructure at the World Conference on Floating Solutions 2026.

Prof. Em.Torgeir Moan

Torgeir Moan is a professor emeritus of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), a former Director of the research excellence, CeSOS, and is currently professor at Ningbo University. Professor Moan’s main disciplines are structural analysis and design, with a focus on safety assessment. He has carried out research as well as engineering of innovative concepts of ships, oil and gas platforms, floating bridges, offshore wind turbines and aquaculture facilities.

Dr. Moan has served on the Royal Inquiry Commission of the Alexander L. Kielland accident and other accident inquiries and on various committees for standardization of offshore structures (e.g. ISO); wind turbines (IEC) and floating bridges (NPRA). He has served as the inaugural adjunct Keppel professor at the National University of Singapore and has honorary academic positions at several leading Chinese universities.

He has authored or co-authored about 800 journal and peer-reviewed conference papers. He has been main supervisor of about 440 MSc students and 90 PhD candidates, respectively.

Professor Moan has delivered about 50 keynote and award lectures at major conferences and received several international awards, e.g. including the (first) Bruce Wallace award at MIT; the James W. Rice award of ASME; the Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame Award, Houston and several best paper awards He has been elected Fellow of five Academies, including the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and is dr. Honoris Causa of Aalto University and a fellow of several professional societies.

Prof. Yonghwan Kim

Prof. Yonghwan Kim got a BS and MS degrees at Seoul National University and a PhD degree at MIT, and he is currently a professor in Seoul National University. His major research field is marine hydrodynamics such as seakeeping and sloshing. He is the Fellow of RINA and SNAME, and full member of National Academy of Engineering of Korea. He was a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering and University of Southampton, Specially-appointed Professor of Osaka University, and a visiting professor of MIT. He is a Weinblum Memorial Lecturer and David Kenneth Medalist. Currently he serves as the Director of Lloyd’s Register Foundation Research center in SNU, Vice Chair and South-East Asia represent of ITTC Executive Committee, Editor-in-Chief of JEME, and Executive Guest Editor of Ocean Engineering for ITTC Journal. He also serve for many international journals, committees, and conferences as executive board member.

Prof. Shixiao Fu

Prof. Shixiao Fu is the Dean of the School of Ocean and Civil Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). He is an Academician of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, a leading talent of the National Ten-Thousand Talents Program for Science and Technology Innovation, a Fellow of SNAME (USA), and a Siyuan Scholar of SJTU. He has been funded by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and its continuation project, and was awarded the Xplorer Prize in 2022. Prof. Fu serves as the Associate Editor of Marine Structures and Journal OMAE. His primary research focuses on fluid-structure interactions in ocean engineering, with a particular emphasis on the vortex-induced vibration of marine risers, as well as the hydroelasticity of floating structures, floating bridges, and fish farming structures. His work has been recognized with awards including the First Prize of Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award and the Special Prize of China Ocean Engineering Science and Technology Award.

Prof. Aziz Amirali Merchant

Prof Merchant is responsible for Technology and New Product Development at Seatrium, covering offshore renewables, new energy, carbon capture solutions, and sustainable oil and gas. He also oversees Seatrium’s group of technology companies, with operations in Singapore and internationally. With over 30 years of design and engineering experience in offshore oil and gas development and offshore and marine vessel design, Mr. Merchant holds more than 100 international scientific patents granted or filed under his name. He is a Fellow of the Singapore Academy of Engineering, a Chartered Engineer with the UK Engineering Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, IMarEST, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. He is also a Senior Member of the Institution of Engineers Singapore.

Prof Merchant chairs the President Technology Award Committee, serves on the Board of the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation, acts as Science and Technical Adviser to TCOMS, and is Deputy Chair of the Singapore Standards Council. He is also the President of the Association for Singapore Marine and Offshore Energy Industries (ASMI). He has received multiple industry awards in recognition of his contributions to engineering excellence and innovation. He holds engineering degrees from the University of Glasgow and University College London, and completed Harvard Business School’s General Management Program.

Prof. Minhan Dai

Prof. Minhan Dai is a Chair Professor of Marine Science at Xiamen University, where he served as the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science from 2005 to 2021 and currently serves as the Director of the Fujian Ocean Innovation Center. His primary research interests include the biogeochemistry of ocean carbon and nutrients and their coupling with ocean dynamics within the broad context of climatic and environmental change. He is also well known for his work in marine radiochemistry. Recently, his research scope has expanded to the interface between science and policy.

Prof. Dai has published more than 290 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals. He was elected an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017 and won the 2022 Axford Medal Award from the AOGS. In 2024, he was elected an AGU Fellow and received the AGU Ambassador Award.

Prof. Dai is deeply engaged in international collaboration, serving on expert groups for GO2NE and the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. He is a council member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), co-chaired SOLAS from 2021 to 2023, and is the Lead PI for the UN Ocean Decade project, COASTAL-SOS.