The Aero- and Hydromechanics of Keel Yachts

Johannes ('Joop'*)) W. Slooff*) is a (retired) fluid dynamicist by profession. He is also a cruising yachtsman (not yet retired).
In 1964 he obtained his degree in aeronautical engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, also having followed the Diploma Course at the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) in Rhode-St.Genèse, near Brussels in Belgium.
In 1965 he joined the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as a research scientist in aerodynamics, with airfoil and wing design and applied computational aerodynamic design methodologies as his main topics of research. Much of this research was done in support of and in close collaboration with the former Fokker Aircraft Company.
In 1976 he was appointed as head of the Theoretical Aerodynamics Department of NLR and in 1986 as chief of the Fluid Dynamics Division, a position he held until his retirement in 2001. From 1987 to 2001 he was also a part-time professorin applied computational aerodynamics at the Aerospace Faculty of Delft University of Technology.
He has served on several national and international advisory committees such as the Fluid Dynamics Panel of the former Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development (AGARD) of NATO, the Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) of NATO, the Applied Aerodynamics Committee of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe (GARTEUR), the Technical Advisory Committee of the Von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium and the Scientific Advisory Council of the Maritime Research Institute of the Netherlands (MARIN). In 1996 he delivered the 36th Lanchester Lecture for the Royal Aeronautical Society in London. He is the 1997 recipient of the Von Kármán Medal of AGARD/NATO, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to that organisation. He is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics.