Dr Eduardo Blanco Davis

BIOGRAPHY

Dr Eddie Blanco-Davis is a Reader in Marine Engineering for the School of Engineering. He started his position as a Senior Lecturer and a member of the Liverpool Logistics Offshore and Marine Research Institute (LOOM) in 2015.

Eddie obtained a BSc in Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management from the United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, N.Y., in 2004, and sailed shortly as a member of the engine department on different commercial containerships.

After carrying out water and fuel treatment servicing for various industry diesel-powered generation plants, he performed as a project manager collectively for 4 years at repair shipyards in Panama and Mexico. He has previously worked for Braswell International Shipyard, Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co., and Ashland Specialty Chemical Co.

He also holds an MSc and a PhD from the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

His research interests include human factors applied to shipboard and pilotage operations; Life Cycle Assessment applied to marine operations and machinery; sustainable development, energy efficiency, renewable energy; marine environmental protection and regulation, including emission control, ship ballast water management and alternatives, and environmentally sound marine propulsion systems.


RESEARCH PROFILE

• Over 30+ refereed publications with 24 SCI-cited journal publications, 3 special issue journal editorials, conference submissions, and three book chapters, among others.
• Completion of supervision of 1 postdoctoral researcher as the principal supervisor.
• Completion of supervision of 7 visiting scholars (6 as the principal supervisor).
• Completion of supervision of 10 PhDs (6 as the principal supervisor).
• Completion of supervision of 1 Professional Doctorate as the principal supervisor.
• Completion of 10 PhD Viva and Thesis examinations.
• Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence: Postgraduate Research Supervisor (FET).
• Research work from external funding bodies such as EU and UK research councils, and collaborative research with various SMEs and industrial companies (e.g. ENVOREM, ARMADA, ASTANDER, ATLANTEC, LASKARIDIS Shipping, GRIMALDI, etc.) and leading universities.
• Currently supervising 2 postdoctoral candidates (as the principal supervisor) and 10 PhD students (5 as principal supervisor).


PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION
• Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (FIMarEST), 2017 - date (Member from 2010 to 2017).
• Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the UK Engineering Council, Registrant Number 628362


EXTERNAL RESEARCH GRANTS
As Principal Investigator

• Innovate UK – Smart Grants £48,975 (£498,864 in total), Reducing Maritime Emissions, Innovate UK Project No 10018392. (2022-2023, COMPLETED).

• Horizon Europe £539,765 (€5.7 million in total), RETROFIT55: Retrofit Solutions to Achieve 55% GHG Reduction By 2030. (2023-2026, ONGOING).


As Co-Investigator

• EC FP7 €344,448 (€3.65 million in total), ECO-REFITEC: Eco innovative refitting technologies and processes for shipbuilding industry promoted by European Repair Shipyards. (2011-2014, COMPLETED).

• H2020 Marie Curie RISE €423,000 (€1.42 million in total) , RESET: Reliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems. (2017-2023, COMPLETED).

• H2020 Marie Curie RISE €230,000 (€1.1 million in total), ENHANCE: ENHANCing Human Performance in Complex Socio-Technical SystEms. (2018-2024, ONGOING)

• MarRI-UK-DfT (Technology and Innovation in UK Maritime), £170k (£170k in total) LADDER - Lookout Awareness of Distractions: the creation of a Distraction Evaluation Ratio. (2020-2022, COMPLETED).

• IAMU 2024 Research Project (International Association of Maritime Universities), $59,600 ($59,600 in total), NO-FOUL: Facilitating greener education and cleaner shipping through the development of NOvel bespoke microtextured metals to combat bioFOULing in niche areas on vessels. (2024-2025, ONGOING).

• The Royal Society International Exchanges 2023 Cost Share £12,000 (£12,000 in total), Risk and Reliability Assessment of Passenger Ship Evacuation Strategies in Arctic Environments. (2024-2026, ONGOING).


EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP
• Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology (JMET) (2022 - ).
• Member of the Associate Board of the Journal of Marine Science and Application (JMSA) (2021 - ).
• Review Editor on Advanced Clean Fuel Technologies for Frontiers in Energy Research (2023 - )


SUPERVISION OF RESEARCH PROJECTS
Doctoral projects under supervision (as the principal supervisor)

Mr. C. Ikewete (2015 – 2020), A risk based framework for design, inspection and maintenance of offshore windfarm turbine.
Part-time PhD research project (COMPLETED).

Mr. G. Asuelimen (2016-2020), An enhanced risk assessment model for offshore seismic survey in hostile environment: A case study of Arctic oil and gas exploration.
PhD research project (COMPLETED).

Mrs. B. Kelly (2016-2021), An analysis into the process of selection and retention of deck cadets in the UK Merchant Navy.
Part-time PhD research project (COMPLETED).

Mr. C. Kelly (2016-2020), Investigation into the uses of Life Cycle Analysis as an Alternative Method of Certifying Tidal Power Schemes.
PhD research project, funded by a scholarship from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, LJMU (COMPLETED).

Mr. H. Oraith (2016 – 2020), The impact of human element factors on pilotage operations safety.
PhD research project, funded by the Libyan Government (COMPLETED).

Miss S. Fan (2017-2020), The Influence of Seafarer’s Emotion on Navigation Safety.
PhD research project (dual PhD), funded by Wuhan University of Technology and LJMU (COMPLETED).

Mrs. H. Sivori (2019-2024), Maritime Simulation-based stress-induced analysis and mitigating methods while applying functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
PhD research project, funded by a scholarship from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, LJMU.

Mr. A. Khalique (2020-2026), Eliminating instrumental distractions on a ship’s bridge to improve the Officer of the Watch’s situational awareness focus.
Professional Doctorate (EngD) (COMPLETED).

Mr. D. Hitchmough (2021-2025), Hull-Propeller interaction on ships using Air Lubrication: A study into enhancing ship design and construction for an environmentally efficient operation.
PhD research project, funded by a scholarship from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, LJMU.

Mr. R. Povall-Griffin (2021-2025), Usage of Stabilised Plasma as an alternative method for treatment and decontamination of ballast and greywater.
PhD research project, funded by a scholarship from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, LJMU.

Mr. A. Albastaki (2022-2029), A Comparative Study on the Solar and Nuclear Power Plants in the UAE and Their Footprint on the Environment and Urbanization.
Part-time PhD research project.

Mr. M. Hamoud (2022-2026), A multi-criteria decision-making framework for energy management of a hybrid solar-wind-hydrogen power plant.
PhD research project.

Miss D. Yazdani (2024-2027), Utilising real-time sensor data, simulation, and policy inputs to make active travel in the Liverpool City Region safe and more convenient.
Research project, awarded under the LJMU Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Studentship.


Doctoral projects under supervision (as the 2nd supervisor)

Mr. A. Alghanmi (2013 – 2017), Maritime supply chain resilience assessment.
PhD research project, funded by the Saudi Arabia Government (COMPLETED).

Mr. C. Wan (2015 – 2018), Risk assessment of container supply chains.
PhD (dual PhD) research project, funded by the Chinese government, EU and LJMU (COMPLETED).

Mr. S. Symes (2017-2022), Ship simulator-based seafarers’ skill acquisition incorporating the use of Functional-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).
PhD research project, funded by a scholarship from Liverpool John Moores University (COMPLETED).

Mr. A. Spiteri (2019-2023), A Novel design to induce a passive air layer under ships to reduce viscous drag.
PhD research project (COMPLETED).

Mr. J. Ford (2021-2025), Sustainability in the decommissioning process of UK offshore installations and the management of hazardous waste.
PhD research project, funded by a scholarship from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, LJMU.

Mr. N. Karimalis (2021-2028), The Effect of Management Standards and Systems on Greek Shipping Companies
(As an Extension of Corporate Governance Practices).
Part-time PhD research project.

Mr. J. Divers (2023-2027), Investigation into the viability of hydrogen fuels in commercial shipping vessels to improve shipping industry sustainability.
PhD research project, funded by the Vice Chancellor’s Bicentenary scholarship from Liverpool John Moores University.

Mr. P. Aihonsu (2023-2030), Hydrogen fuelled vessel safety analysis using fuzzy modelling and evidential reasoning with Bayesian network.
Part-time PhD research project.

Mr. S. Waddington (2019-2028), Offshore Power: Vessels supplies and offshore electrical distribution.
Part-time PhD research project (3rd Supervisor).


Post-Doctoral projects under supervision (as the principal supervisor)

Dr S. Symes (2022-2023) Reducing Maritime Emissions. Postdoctoral research project, funded by Innovate UK – Smart Grants (COMPLETED).

Dr A. Spiteri (2023-2026) RETROFIT55: Retrofit Solutions to Achieve 55% GHG Reduction By 2030, Horizon Europe funded.

Dr O. Yüksel (2024-2026) RETROFIT55: Retrofit Solutions to Achieve 55% GHG Reduction By 2030, Horizon Europe funded.


Visiting scholar projects under supervision (as the principal supervisor)

Miss S. Fan (Jan-July 2016), Collaborative research on an EU funded project “Research Network on Flexible Risk Assessment and Decision Science”, involving both LJMU and Wuhan University of Technology. Miss Fan is from Wuhan University of Technology.

Prof D. A. Wahab (Oct-Dec 2017), Collaborative research on an EU funded project “REliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems (RESET)”, involving both LJMU and the National University of Malaysia (UKM). Field of research: Designing re-manufacturable marine components and assemblies for environmental sustainability.

Mrs O. Mokkhavas (Apr-Aug 2018), Collaborative research on an EU funded project “REliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems (RESET)”, involving both LJMU and Mahidol University, Thailand. Field of research: Port Logistics System and Sustainable Assessment of Automated Container Ports.

Dr T. Prapaspongsa (May-Sep 2019), Collaborative research on an EU funded project “REliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems (RESET)”, involving both LJMU and Mahidol University, Thailand. Field of research: Sustainability Assessment of Maritime Transport Systems.

Prof Saman bin Kader (Nov-Dec 2022), Collaborative research on an EU funded project “REliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems (RESET)”, involving both LJMU and Mahidol University, Thailand. Field of research: the global liquefied natural gas demand and its impact on to LNG shipping activities.

Mr Kun Shi (Nov 2022 - Nov 2023), Collaborative research financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and Shanghai Maritime University, China. Field of research: Modelling and evaluation of seafarer’s unsafe state during navigation.


Visiting scholar projects under supervision (as the 2nd supervisor)

Mr Xiaofei Ma (May 2023 - Oct 2023), Collaborative research financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and Dalian Maritime University, China. Field of research: Human Factors, Maritime Accident Prevention.


PHD EXAMINATIONS

• Decision Making Analysis for Integrated Risk Management Framework of Maritime Container Port Infrastructure and Transportation Systems, November 2016.
• Research on Risk Management for Healthcare Supply Chain in Hospital, June 2018.
• Laser Surface Texturing to Create Biomimetic Surface Topographies for Marine Antifouling Efficacy Testing, November 2019.
• Design of Industrial Workplaces to relieve Workers when Interacting with Joint-Arm-Robots, December 2020.
• Performance assessment modelling of a low-speed two-stroke marine engine, July 2021.
• A Strategic Decision Support Tool for Shipyard Production Performance Evaluation and Budget Optimisation for Improvement, January 2022.
• A Decision-Making Framework for Assessing the Safety Culture of Maritime Organizations, March 2022.
• A Practice Migration Strategy to Facilitate Implementation of BS EN IEC 61508 in the UK Commercial Marine Sector, September 2022.
• A Decision-Making Framework for Assessing the Safety Culture of Maritime Organizations with Commercial Cargo-Carrying Vessels, July 2023.
• Advancement of Life Cycle Assessment Policy Framework on Marine Fuels towards Decarbonisation of the Shipping Sector, Dec 2023.


SUBJECTS TAUGHT/INVOLVED WITH:

• Marine Design and Technology (Module Leader - Level 5)
• Engineering Project (Level 6)
• Mechanical Design Engineering 3 (Level 6)
• Marine Design Engineering (Module Leader - Level 7 MEng & MSc)
• Marine Technology Management (Level 7 MEng & MSc)
• Marine Maintenance and Asset Management (Level 7 MEng & MSc)
• Engineering Group Project (Level 7 MEng)
• Risk & Safety Management (Level 7 MSc, in partnership with Risktec Solutions).

Languages

Spanish; Castilian
Catalan; Valencian

Degrees

2015, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, PhD in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
2013, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, PgCert in Advanced Academic Studies/Research Development
2011, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom, MSc with Distinction, Technical Management of Ship Operations
2004, United States Merchant Marine Academy, United States, BSc in Marine Engineering and Shipyard Management

Certifications

Project Management Institute, Certified Associate in Project Management
Panamanian Maritime Authority, Second Assistant Engineer, Unlimited Horsepower
U.S. Coast Guard, Third Assistant Engineer, Unlimited Horsepower
Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, Chartered Marine Engineer (CMarEng)

Academic appointments

Reader in Marine Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Liverpool John Moores University, 2021 - present
Senior Lecturer in Marine and Offshore Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Liverpool John Moores University, 2015 - 2021
Researcher, Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 2011 - 2014