Lasher Named Editor-in-Chief of New Engineering Journal
William C. Lasher, associate professor and chair of the mechanical engineering program at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, has been named first editor-in-chief of the newly launched Journal of Sailboat Technology.
The journal will be an online, peer-reviewed publication of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and its Small Craft Technical Panel. It is intended to cover not only fundamental and analytical studies using theoretical models, water tanks and wind tunnels, but also the results and analysis of full-scale experiments. Topics to be discussed include sail design, analysis, and optimization; resistance, motion, and stability; hull and appendage design and optimization; performance prediction; race analysis; weather routing; and structural, material, and construction methods.
The editorial board for the Journal of Sailboat Technology includes Margot Gerritsen of Stanford University’s Stanford Yacht Research group; Jan Keuning of the Ship Hydrodynamics Laboratory at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands; Peter Richards of the Yacht Research Unit at the University of Auckland, New Zealand; and independent consultants Claudio Fassardi and Robert Ranzenbach.
William Lasher earned B.S.E. and M.S.E. degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering from the University of Michigan, and a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Formerly a sailboat designer for C&C Yachts in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and sail maker for Bierig Sails in Erie, he is an avid racer who has competed in national championship events in San Diego, Annapolis, Milwaukee, Toronto, and Detroit.
Lasher’s research interests are computational fluid dynamics and engineering education; in 2003 he spent a semester-long sabbatical working on sail aerodynamics at the Yacht Research Unit in Auckland. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and member of the American Society of Engineering Education and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honorary Society.