Dr. Susan Swithenbank joined the faculty at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in January of 2009 teaching in both the Naval Architecture and Electrical Engineering sections. She holds a Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. After receiving her Ph.D., she continued her research in vortex-induced vibrations as a post-doctoral researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She also worked as an experimental engineer at the Naval Surface Warfare, Carderock Division doing research in propulsion and resistance and at Lockheed Martin doing research in submarine vibrations and acoustics. Her research is focused on fluid-structure interactions with applications in off-shore structures and marine propulsion. 

• Ph.D., Ocean Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007
• B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 2000

• Statics and Engineering Design
• Dynamics
• Principles of Naval Architecture
• Experimental Methods in Fluid and Thermal Sciences
• Engineering Experimentation
• Ship Design/System Integration
• Fundamentals of Engineering Review
• Directed Studies in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

• Swithenbank and Larsen, “Occurrence of High Amplitude VIV with Time Sharing”, Offshore Mechanics and Artic Engineering Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, OMAE2012-83431, July 2012
• Black and Swithenbank, “Analysis of Crashback Forces Compared with Experimental Results” First Symposium on Marine Propulsion, Trondheim, Norway, June 2009
• Swithenbank, Jessup, and Etebari, “Propeller 4381 in Crashback in an Open and Ducted Configuration” NSWCCD-50-TR-2008-063, August 2008
• Swithenbank and Larsen, “The Importance of Mode Number on In-line Amplitude”, Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference, Lisbon, Portugal June 2008, OMAE2008-57045
• Swithenbank, Larsen, Vandiver, and Marcollo, “Reynolds Number Dependence of Flexible Cylinder VIV Response Data”, Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference, Lisbon, Portugal June 2008, OMAE2008-57531
• Swithenbank, Vandiver, and Marcollo, “Time Sharing of Frequencies in High Mode Number Vortex-Induced Vibrations” Bluff Bodies and Vortex Induced Vibrations (BBVIV-5), Costa Do Sauipe, Brazil, December 2007
• Swithenbank and Vandiver, “Identifying the Power-In Region for Vortex-Induced Vibrations of Long Flexible Cylinders” Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference, San Diego CA, OMAE2007-29156, 2007
• Vandiver, Swithenbank, Jaiswal, Jhingran, “Fatigue Damage from High-Mode Number Vortex-Induced Vibration” Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering Conference, Hamburg, Germany, OMAE2006-9240, 2006
• Vandiver, Swithenbank, Jaiswal, Marcollo, “The Effectiveness of Helical Strakes in the Suppression of High-Mode Number VIV” Offshore Technology Conference, OTC-18276, 2006
• Vandiver, Marcollo, Swithenbank, Jhingran “High Mode-Number Vortex-Induced Vibration Field Experiments” Offshore Technology Conference, OTC-17383, 2005
• Selected other works of higher classification

• ASME International Petroleum Technical Institute Arthur Lubinski Award of Excellence for Outstanding Technical Paper at the 2006 Offshore Technology Conference

• American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)
• Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME)