Richard Kimball

Dr. Kimball is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maine, and sits as the Presidential Professor in Ocean Engineering and Energy. His current research is focused primarily on the design and model development of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) a well as testing of scale model FOWT systems in both model basins and field tests.
Dr. Kimball was involved as a lead collaborator on early scale model FOWT testing at MARIN in 2010 and 2013, where several models at 1:50th scale were tested (Spar, Semi and TLP’s) He was involved in UMaine’s offshore test of the 1:8 scale Volturnus FOWT platform and more recently the1:5 scale Volturnus+ platform being deployed in Fall 2024. He was involved in recent basin tests of a 1:70 IEA 15 MW FOWT model led by NREL and tested at UMaine, which implemented NRELs ROSCO turbine controller for the first time on a scale model turbine. His most current work involves the development of Digital Twin control systems for FOWT’s using knowledge gained from these prior works.

External Engagements

• Presidential Professor of Ocean Engineering and Energy 2019-2024 UMaine
• Professor Emeritus 2019-present Maine Maritime Academy
• Lecturer 2004-2012 MIT Mechanical Engineering