Michael Triantafyllou

Michael Triantafyllou is the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor in Ocean Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the Director of the MIT Sea Grant Program and served as the Director of the Center for Ocean Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from 2005-2017.

He teaches and has published over 350 journal articles and refereed conference papers in the areas of biomimetics, dynamics and control of marine systems, cable mechanics, and experimental fluid mechanics. He pioneered the development of science-driven biomimetic robots to study the basic mechanisms of flow control that lead to the outstanding agility of fish and cetaceans. The RoboTuna original design is at the Science Museum in London, while a second version of the robot shown at left, is on exhibit at the MIT Museum. He is currently studying the physics of flow sensing in fish and marine mammals to achieve super-maneuverability in ocean vehicles through flow feedback control.

He has served as Associate Department Head in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2008-2010) and has been a Visiting Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since 1991. He is serving on the American Bureau of Shipping’s Marine Technical Committee (2015-). He is Chairman of the Board of the National Technical University of Athens (2013-2017).