Professor, Executive Director, International Association of Maritime Universities
Takeshi Nakazawa has been involved in both Maritime Education and Training and Maritime Technology since he graduated from the department of marine engineering at Kobe University of Mercantile Marine in 1980. He first joined the Institute for Sea Training of the Japanese Ministry of Transport as a training instructor for Marine Engineering cadets on board training ships. During his life at sea for 7 years, he obtained the chief engineer’s certificate then he returned to the department of marine engineering of his alma mater in 1987 as a research associate.
After that point, his research activities concentrated on Thermal Power Systems, particularly thermal control systems in space, by which he obtained his Ph.D. from Kobe University in 1995. During 1996-1997 he was a visiting professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, supported by the Ministry of Education in Japan. Although the main research topic was in the field of mechanical engineering, he maintained an interest in the fields of marine engineering.
Dr. Nakazawa first contracted with World Maritime University from 1997 to 1999 as the associate professor of the Marine Engineering stream in Maritime Education and Training course. This experience made him realize the importance of education and training processes to develop maritime safety and environment protection throughout the world. After returning to Kobe University, he was involved in several international projects in terms of the improvement of MET systems through international organizations such as International Maritime Organization, International Maritime Lecturers Association, International Association of Maritime Universities and Japan International Co-operation Agency.
Takeshi obtained his position as the Professor of the Nippon Foundation Chair in Maritime Technology at World Maritime University in October 2003. He has mainly overseen the technical subjects in MSc programs both at World Maritime University and Dalian Maritime University in China. He is currently serving as the Secretary of the International Association of Maritime Universities with 17% of his time devoted to WMU as a professor.