Simo Mäkiharju grew up in Vantaa, Finland, outside the capital city of Helsinki. At sixty degrees latitude, Vantaa gets only six hours of daylight in the winter. In the summer they get a ridiculous nineteen hours, which seems paradoxical. Growing up, Simo liked to get outdoors for skiing in the winter, but the weather was often more conducive to being indoors. Using computers to code and do schoolwork were two activities that attracted him.

Simo was always working during the summer, and many evenings of high school. Ironically, for three years, that meant selling ice cream at the stadium or hockey arena. In one of his prouder moments in high school, he was a last-minute entrant to a national math competition. It surprised him when he won second place for his city. Simo also volunteered for the Red Cross, where he learned first aid skills. He used those skills to help at community sports competitions.

Simo completed twelve months of obligatory military service between high school and college. He was thrown in with people of all backgrounds, but says it was good for creating cohesion between different segments of society. It was peacetime service, so there was no combat, just lots of weapons training.

Simo made his college plans before entering the military. Two weeks out of the Army he was attending classes at LUT University (Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology). A student advisor helped him choose his classes. She said it would be OK for him to take a third-year fluids class during his first semester. After Simo got the second highest grade in the class, the professor invited him to work in his lab. What most would have said was a bad decision, worked out well for Simo.

Later, a visiting professor from Ohio State was talking to Simo’s advisor at LUT. Simo helped the professor for a few days and ended up getting admitted to OSU doing master’s research. His work involved using a CFD package (computational fluid dynamics) called Fluent, to study fuel sprays. In 2020 the background came in handy when Simo got involved with colleagues and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory studying COVID-related droplet spread.

Following OSU, Simo studied frictional drag reduction and developed X-ray measurement techniques for multiphase flows while earning his PhD at the University of Michigan. Collaborating with industry to reduce drag on ships, their system cut required shaft output by 20%, albeit the energy to deliver the gas mitigated much of this, leaving net savings in the best conditions at 4 to 8%. Later, at UC Berkeley, he got a patent for an improved gas lubrication system, which he continues to work on.

Simo spent another three years at Michigan—half as a post-doc and half as a research scientist. Then, in 2016, UC Berkeley’s Mechanical Engineering Department hired him.

Today, besides teaching and research, Simo is leading a team of Berkeley undergraduates who are designing and building an SSC exhibit called The Flow Loop. This is the first partnering initiative of its kind for the SSC. We are excited for the result and think Simo is the perfect person to be leading the effort.

September started with with a bang at Latitude 38's fall Crew List Party. On September 1^st six SSC volunteers assembled at Spaulding Wooden Boat Center in Sausalito to share our wares and spread the word at this landmark event.

The party is held twice a year—once in the spring and once in the fall—to connect skippers and crew. This is the perfect place to meet future volunteers for the SSC, and 2022 proved that to be true with record numbers of new names added to our volunteer and newsletter subscriber lists.

The SSC wants to acknowledge John Arndt and Latitude 38 for hosting this event and to thank them for including the SSC in the mix!

The SSC has partnered with cryptocurrency donation site, The Giving Block, to accept cryptocurrency donations. The first donation has already hit the books. Will yours be next? Click here to donate with crypto.

In this third installment of World Class, we will delve into the microbiome and why it is at the core of maintaining energy for everything we do. This is an exclusive for SSC volunteers as part of our commitment to give back to the people who are giving their time. It is our belief that having the strongest team comes from having the strongest team members. We are providing this to our volunteers to help them be as vital, healthy, and strong as possible.

A row of Sunfish line the shore of Vineyard Lake in Geyserville, California. The boats sail well in light air and flat water, where they make their own wind. The air that flows over their sails is the sum of the true wind and the wind created by their motion. Known as apparent wind, it is a paradox of sailing that verges on magic.