Dan Walker

Dr. Dan Walker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Dr. Walker’s research has focused on the hydrodynamic performance of marine vehicles. Before joining Memorial University, he was president of Oceanic Consulting Corporation, a St. John’s based marine performance evaluation research firm. He sold the firm to J.D. Irving Limited in 2011. At the time, the firm had 45 employees and over $6.5 million in international research revenue. Oceanic carried out contract research in hydrodynamics and arctic engineering with clients and projects spanning a broad range of the marine industry. Research included the propulsion performance of ships, yachts, sailing vessels and offshore structures. On joining Memorial, Dr. Walker took over leadership of the Marine Environmental Research Laboratory for Intelligent Vehicles (MERLIN). Under his leadership, MERLIN carried out a $5.0 million research project called Responsive Localization and Mapping (REALM) that developed software-based control strategies to improve autonomous control of underwater vehicles.