Dear Fellow SFSS Member,

The Society of Floating Solutions (Singapore) recently held its 6th AGM. I was elected the society’s new president, alongside new council members, whom I congratulate on their election. An overview can be found below. I very much look forward to working with the new council and our members on a variety of important and exciting topics.

I would like to thank the previous council for their contributions, in particular former president Mike Watt and former council member (Lead Floating Energy) Alan Ross Magee.

I am also happy to announce that Prof. Qian Xudong and Dr. Zhang Chi joined us as new council members.

A brief self-introduction: I am a Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore and previously was a Fulbright and US SSRC fellow at Harvard University. Earlier, I was a history and public policy fellow at the Wilson Center. I am originally from Germany and have written a book (soon to be published) on the role of floating and seabed-fixed structures as tools to gain access to new geophysical layers, such as oil and gas deposits beneath the seabed, up to outer space in the case of offshore launch and landing platforms. In terms of SFSS activities, I was a council member and have organized the ongoing webinar series. Maybe you also remember my keynote speech at the last World Conference on Floating Solutions (WCFS2023) in Tokyo or my SFSS webinar in 2020 on Tange Kenzo, Buckminster Fuller, and Tokyo Bay. Some of my articles and op eds can be found on the society website.

The society will host many exciting events this year and we hope you will find interest in joining them. These activities include:

Joerg Baumeister’s webinar on the SeaCities Lab on 17th April, 4pm SGT.

• a short course on navel architecture and the fundaments for floating structures

• webinars on prominent topics like floating settlements, floating renewables, and floating recreation sites

• a symposium, likely on floating P/V

• and we are thinking about an event on floating nuclear power

WCFS2024 in Hong Kong (December this year) is another key event in which the society is deeply involved in and I encourage society members who are interested in participation to submit their paper proposals until 21st April 2024.

Another important topic, which is of great concern to me, is improving communication with and among society members. We are in the process of updating the website. We also plan to create a whatsapp group on floating solutions topics to facilitate more interactive communication. Better updating members through LinkedIn and Facebook, etc., are further topics that we plan to realize during the coming weeks. Moreover, a youtube channel will serve as an archive of our webinars and you are welcome to check out those events you may have missed in the past.

Finally, I would like to encourage members to suggest webinar topics and also to inform us about your publications and important news, which we will help publicizing via the aforementioned venues when they go online.

I look forward to working with you all.

Sincerely,

Stefan

Dr Stefan Huebner

President

Society of Floating Solutions (Singapore)