Björn Kjerfve

Graduation 2011
On Sunday, 4 December, WMU’s Chancellor and IMO Secretary-General, Mr. Efthimios E Mitropoulos, conferred postgraduate degrees on the World Maritime University’s Class of 2011. The Guests of Honor were Admiral Oscar Adolfo Arce, Commandant, Prefectura Naval Argentina, and Vice-Admiral Brian Salerno, Deputy Commandant for Operations, US Coast Guard. Four WMU graduates, Li Ying of China, Kofi Mbiah of Ghana, Rajendra Prasad of India, and Azfar Mohamad Mustafar of Malaysia, received their Ph.D. degrees, along with 104 students graduating from the Malmö-based M.Sc. program in Maritime Affairs, and 23 from the distance-learning Postgraduate Diploma program in Marine Insurance. This was the first graduation ceremony for students following the newly structured, streamlined 14-month Malmö-based M.Sc. program in Maritime Affairs. This group of graduates includes the largest-ever number of women graduates (31), the largest number of students from Africa since 1989 (36 of whom 19 are from Nigeria), the largest-ever number of students funded by their employers, governments, or from personal resources (44), and the youngest group of students since the Class of 2001, with an average age of 33.3. The WMU graduates of 2011 bring the total number of graduates to 3,242.

During the ceremony, the annual special awards to students were announced: Anne Bouyssou of France won the Chancellor’s Medal for Academic Excellence, the Pierre Léonard Prize for the Best Female Student, and the Lloyd’s Maritime Academy dissertation prize; Zhao Jian of China won the Informa Law dissertation prize; and Nyein Ei Phyu of Myanmar won the C P Srivastava Award for International Fellowship.

Award Ceremony for Sasakawa Fellows
The Ocean Policy Research Foundation hosted on 2 December a reception to honor the graduating students sponsored by the Sasakawa Fellowship Programme and to award them a certificate and gift to mark their transition from student to member of the Friends of WMU, Japan. The reception was hosted by Eisuke Kudo, Eiji Sakai, Shinichi Ichikawa of the OPRF, and presided over by Mitsuyuki Unno, Executive Director of the Nippon Foundation. Distinguished guests included The Mayor of Malmö and Chairman of the Malmö City Council, Kent Andersson and his wife Monica Blomberg, Zhu Jianxin, Director of the Technical Co-operation Division, IMO, the Honorary Consul of Japan in Malmö, Leif Almö, and Member of the WMU Board of Governors, Rev. Tom Heffer, Secretary-General of the Mission to Seafarers, London, as well as all current Sasakawa Fellows, graduating students and their junior colleagues, and WMU faculty and staff members, family members, and a number of WMU Malmö families.

IT Changes
After almost a full year of preparations, Google Apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar, and numerous additional web-based collaboration tools were fully implemented at WMU. The migration of all GroupWise mailboxes, folders, and storage was completed on 30 January, including those of all faculty, staff, and students. The switch to web-based production and communications tools heralds a new age at WMU. Although actual email address at WMU did not change, the underlying structure changed fundamentally, and all email, calendar, and collaboration functions at the university have now become totally web-based with access by all from a computer or device from anywhere across the globe. The switch was accompanied by several in-depth presentations by the IT team. Group and individual training and coaching of faculty, students, and staff will continue for some time to come to ensure a fully successful and accepted IT migration. In addition, Adobe Acrobat Pro X was rolled out to all faculty and staff on 11 January.

Dr. Ölçer Joins WMU Faculty
Dr. Aykut Ölçer joined WMU as Associate Professor on 1 January. Dr. Ölçer hails from Turkey and earned a Ph.D. degree in Naval Architecture Engineering in 2001 from Istanbul Technical University (ITU). He served as a Research Fellow in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, Scotland, UK, 2001-2008. In 2008, he joined the School of Marine Science and Technology, Newcastle University, UK, as a Lecturer at the Newcastle University Marine International Singapore Campus until coming to WMU. Dr. Ölçer’s Ph.D. dissertation focused on the development of a new fuzzy multiple attribute decision-making approach and applications to decision-making in ship design and shipbuilding. He has published extensively on optimized designs of ships and has taught extensively on a variety of maritime topics.

WMU Ph.D. Awards
Assistant Professor Rajendra Prasad successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis, "The Role of Collaborative Learning in Promoting Safety in Shipboard Machinery Spaces" on 23 November. The Examination Board was chaired by the former Director of the Doctoral Programmes, Professor P.K. Mukherjee with Professor Darrel Fisher, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Curtin University, and Professor Stephen Cross, Maritime University Willem Barntsz, as the external examiners. Prasad's supervisor and co-supervisor, Professor Takeshi Nakazawa and Associate Professor Max Mejia, respectively, were also present. Ying Li successfully defended her thesis, "Multimodal Transportation under the Rotterdam Rules: Law and Policy Implications in the Chinese Context" on 1 December. The Examination Board was chaired by the Director of the Doctoral Programmes, Professor Olof Lindén, and the two External Examiners were Professor Lixin Han, Head of Maritime Law Department, Dalian Maritime University, and Professor Lars-Göran Malmberg, University of Gothenburg. Ms Li’s supervisor, Professor Mukherjee, was also present. Dr. Azfar Bin Mohamad Mustafar (Malaysia) successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis “An inquiry into the regimes of piracy, unlawful acts and related preventative measures under international maritime law” already on 7 September 2010, and graduated under the joint Ph.D. program between Swansea University and WMU last November. Dr. Emmanuel Kofi Mbiah successfully defended his thesis “Balancing Shipper and Carrier Interests: A comparative analysis of some salient features on the Rotterdam Rules and its predecessor Treaties” on 26 March 2011. The Examination Board was chaired by Professor Shuo Ma, former Vice President (Academic), the External Examiner was Professor Emeritus Gertjan van der Ziel, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the internal Examiner was Professor Proshanto K. Mukherjee. One of Dr. Mbiah’s supervisors, Professor D. Rhidian, Thomas of Swansea University, was also present. The examiners unanimously awarded Dr. Mbiah a pass at the highest level.

Gift from Korean Register of Shipping
The Korean Register of Shipping (KR), an IACS member classification society, donated 150 copies of its award-winning KR-CON software application to WMU. The KR-CON is a database application that contains full up-to-date texts of all IMO Conventions, Codes, Resolutions, and Circulars on a single USB device. It helps users navigate through the complexities of IMO regulations and assists them to apply the rules and regulations correctly. KR Chairman and CEO, Dr. Oh Kong-gyun, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with WMU to donate 150 copies of KR-CON to the WMU faculty and students and to provide updated versions each year.

INTERTANKO Ph.D. Fellowship Award
WMU inaugurated the INTERTANKO Ph.D. Fellowship Program in Marine Pollution Law on 1 January. The Fellowship Program aims to develop and advance research into the growing trends of criminalizing seafarers in connection with marine pollution incidents and to examine whether such proceedings are in compliance with existing international law. INTERTANKO will provide the successful candidate with the full tuition fee of €24,000 and annual living costs of €12,000 over the 3 year fellowship. The successful applicant will be required to be resident at WMU for the full duration of the Fellowship.

Maritime Casualty Investigation PDC
Eighteen participants attended a Casualty Investigation Professional Development Course at WMU 5-9 December. Dr. Jens Schröder-Hinrichs was supported by Marjorie Murtagh Cooke from Robson Forensic Inc. and LCDS Mark Sawyer, USCG, during the week-long course. The participants came from 11 countries, including France, Ghana, Italy, Latvia, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Vietnam. 

Visit from HSBA in Germany
A group of students from the Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA) visited WMU on 22 November. The students, who follow the Logistics Management and Shipping and Ship Finance programmes of HSBA, were informed about WMU and its programs by Associate Academic Dean Patrick Donner.

Team Safety Passes Midterm Review
The WMU-led research project, TeamSafety, successfully passed its midterm progress review at the European Research Agency. At end of November, the consortium partners presented a progress report on the status of the work to date to a critical expert audience at the headquarters in Brussels. The Project Officer and peer reviewers gave the green light for the continuation of the project into the next phase, to implement developed concepts for the realization of an innovative virtual training platform for team training in maritime safety. TeamSafety is carried out in partnership with the Nautical Institute (UK), the Danish Innovation Institute, PERA (UK), and Unity Studios of Denmark, along with commercial MET providers, Ask Safety of Norway, the Bulgarian Maritime Training Centre and Sea & Shore Safety Services Ltd. of Ireland.  It falls under the EU Specific Program, CAPACITIES, part of the 7th Framework Programme, with a project budget of €2.8 million total and with €300,000 for WMU.

New Faculty Assistants

Mei Ling Nylander joined WMU on 16 January as a Temporary Faculty Assistant until at least the end of the year.  Mei Ling earned a MBA from the University of Durham in 2002, and holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Australian National University in Canberra. She worked as an administrative assistant at UNICEF, Denmark, before joining WMU. She is located in office 410A.

Carin Höglund joined WMU on 4 January as a Temporary Faculty Assistant until at least the end of the year.  Carin holds a M.A. in the Sociology and Anthropology of Travel and Tourism from University of Surrey, Roehampton Institute, London, and a B.A. in Business Administration from Dalarna University, Borlänge, Sweden. Her most recent employment prior to WMU was as a relocation consultant at Human Entrance AB, Malmö.  She is located room 404B.

WMU’s Visual Identity
WMU’s is emblem is well known and is more often referred to as the logo.

Most UN agencies have adopted an emblem incorporating the crossed olive branches. A good logo should convey the concept and values of the brand as well as understanding of the client group. WMU’s is instantly recognizable as a UN emblem and related to seafaring.

The emblem can be embossed onto paper by using our seal, which is a guarantee of a physical document’s authenticity and its legal nature. The word seal refers to the mechanism itself. Its use is governed by the Rules for Custody and Affixation of the University Seal, which state that “the University Seal must be kept in the custody of the President or his delegate (presently the Registrar) and shall not be used except as determined by the President.”

When the emblem is combined with words in a certain format (logotype), it creates a logo.

WMU’s new logo was designed by Saul Isacson. It has not changed the emblem in any way; it simply uses it in a new setting.  It is important, for a logo to work properly that type and graphics always remain the same. A visual identity manual will be issues shortly. 

In Memoriam

Professor Kenji Ishida: It was with sadness that we learned of the death of Professor Kenji Ishida on 17 January.  Dr Ishida was Associate Professor of Maritime Education & Training at WMU from January 1993 to December 1996.  He came to WMU from Kobe University of Mercantile Marine, after gaining his Ph.D. from Imperial College, London.  Dr Ishida had a great impact at WMU, both on the MET specialization and on strengthening our vital links with the Nippon Foundation and the Ocean Policy Research Foundation. He was also active as Chairman of the International Maritime Lecturers’ Association (IMLA).  He continued to take a great interest in WMU after returning to Kobe University, and served for many years on the OPRF fellowship awards committee with distinction.

Professor William Mullen: It was with great regret that I learned of the death of Professor William McMullen on 5 January.  Bill McMullen was Professor of Maritime Administration and of Marine Sciences (Graduate Faculty), Interim Head of the Department of Marine Transportation and Head of the Department of Maritime Administration at Texas A&M University at Galveston, and also Associate Director of the Center for Ports and Waterways of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI).  From 1990-2005 he was Visiting Professor of Maritime Education and Training at WMU, providing an essential contribution to the program and making a direct impact on generations of WMU graduates.