Rachel Jean Pawling

About Dr Pawling

Rachel Pawling joined the department as an undergraduate in 1997 and completed her MEng in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering in 2001. She then joined the Design Research Centre as a research student investigating the application of the Design Building Block approach to innovative ship design. Gaining her PhD in 2007, Rachel has continued her research both in the DRC and via a secondment in industry. In 2014, Rachel was awarded the first BMT DSL Fellowship of Naval Ship Design, and in 2018 was appointed the Lecturer in Ship Design.

Rachel’s main area of interest is the further development of methods and tools for computer aided ship design, particularly in the preliminary stages. She was awarded the RINA WHC Nicholas Prize 2009 for her research in this area. Her research has encompassed personnel movement simulation (the EGO project), which subsequently led to her being awarded the RINA Samuel Baxter Prize for 2008, and design for safety projects including the EC FP7 funded FAROS (Human factors in ship design) and FIREPROOF (fire safety of passenger ships) projects. She was awarded the GL COMPIT 2012 award for her work on the FIREPROOF project. Rachel is part of the Low Carbon Shipping project, and also a contributor to the UK MoD ViSAG (Virtual Ships Advisory Group).