No, I actually changed degrees twice at university before I started studying physics, so it wasn't a childhood dream. When I was a kid I wanted to be a professional basketball player and didn't take my studies too seriously. But the year after high school I injured my knee, which in hindsight was perhaps a blessing in disguise. I tried a few different things at university before deciding that I wanted to research renewable energy and that studying physics would be the best option for that. During my studies I had some great lecturers that I looked up to and made me realise that being a professor would a cool job.
Why did you choose wave mechanics?
I got into wave energy from my thesis project during the final year of undergraduate studies in Australia. My supervisor, Prof Peter Ridd, also had an interest in renewable energy and was developing marine sensors and monitoring equipment for the Great Barrier Reef, which required regular boat trips to download the data and replace the batteries (which wasn't such a bad job for us students getting to spend the day at the reef whilst doing some maintenance work on the equipment). However, with the rise in mobile telecommunication network coverage, the data could instead be transmitted automatically back to shore, but this placed an even greater drain on the battery. Therefore a renewable power source was required to recharge the batteries and enable the equipment to operate autonomously. Prof Ridd and I devised a concept for a small scale wave energy harvester to power the system and I really enjoyed the project, since wave energy research is very multidisciplinary and I got to work on a range of topics.
How and why did you decide to move to Budapest?
My wife is Hungarian. We met in Ireland while I was a Postdoc at the Centre for Ocean Energy Research in Maynooth University and she was working at an international company based in Dublin. We lived there for a few years before deciding to move to Budapest to be close to her family.
In what ways can BME help your research? What does it add to your academic goals?
I have never worked at a university with so many Engineering Departments before. Just in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, we have 10 different departments. As I mentioned before, offshore renewable energy is very multidisciplinary, and there is a wealth of knowledge here at BME across a very wide range of disciplines. So having the opportunity to work with experts from so many different fields is very beneficial. For example, I am based in the Dept of Fluid Mechanics but have been collaborating with a colleague from the Applied Mechanics Dept, Dr Giuseppe Habib, on topics relating to the dynamic stability of floating structures subjected to wave forces and have learnt alot of new techniques from the field of nonlinear dynamics which can be applied to my research. In addition, I have been fortunate to supervise several good students on thesis projects related to my research, so having access to the strong talent pool of students here is also helpful.
How are you feeling in Hungary?
Hungary has been a great place to start a new family. We have one daughter and another on the way. The government appears to place a lot of importance on supporting young families here, which has been very helpful, and most people here seem to enjoy a good work/life balance. The main downside has been the language barrier and I often need my wife to translate for me in order to do many regular day-to-day things.
In the 2019 interview at bme.hu, you said, that you love Hungarian cuisine – what are your favourite meals here?
There is lots of heavy, savory food here that is really good, I like the toltott kaposzta, rakott karfiol and toltott paprika for example. Goulash is also great. When I am outdoors during the day I enjoy getting a langos with garlic, sour cream and cheese. Also I had never tried fruit soups before I came here, I think you guys have them as an entree but I like them as a dessert.
You are not only a researcher here, but also a lecturer. What kind of tasks do you have in the education?
I lecture a course on Open-Source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), together with Dr Miklós Balogh. I utilised alot of CFD during my research to perform simulations of systems operating in the ocean and I really like the whole concept of open-source software, where communities work together to develop something and share it freely with the world. I also help out with the laboratory sessions for the undergraduate Fluid Mechanics course, which is fun playing around with the experiments in the von Kármán Wind Tunnel facility. Its quite an honor to work at the place where von Kármán studied and I like stopping on the Szabadság bridge out the front of the university and watching the von Kármán vortex streets (which were named after him) being shed on the leeward side of the piers under the bridge.
Laszlo Benesoczky
(Photo credits: Janos Philip)
(Photo credits: Janos Philip)
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