Rick works in the areas of marine renewable energy, offshore wind and hydropower in the areas of instrumentation, testing and validation, data analysis, computer modeling, and system design. Rick leads NREL’s water power testing activities and is helping develop measurement systems for field validation work. Rick is also the NREL principal investigator for PRIMRE and MHKiT. Before joining NREL, Rick was an Associate Professor of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering at Florida Atlantic University, where he focused on ocean energy and navy projects for more than 10 years. While there, he established and led the Center for Ocean Energy Technology, now the Southeast National Marine Energy Center, and served on the Florida Energy Commission. Rick has published more than 50 journal and conference articles, and he holds two patents.

Research Interests

Marine energy validation, testing and certification

Ocean instrumentation, measurement and data processing

Modeling and simulation of offshore wind turbines

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering and Physical Oceanography, University of Victoria

B.A., Mechanical Engineering, Business Management, University of Victoria