Thomas M. Hermann has a strong background in finite element analysis with proficiency in multiple commercial packages. His recent professional experience has focused on composite laminate design, testing and analysis with application directed at wind turbine blades. Prior to that, he performed structural dynamics testing and analysis including aeroelastic analyses, ground vibration testing and flight flutter testing. In the course of all of these tasks, he acquired software development skills in several languages including C, Perl, Python, Fortran and Common Lisp.

His research objectives are to improve the efficiency of horizontal axis wind turbines through improved design and analysis. In the short term, the objective is to complete his PhD by developing a nonlinear material analysis to better characterize the material allowables. In the medium term, implement a wind turbine blade design tool based on Hodge's nonlinear composite beam theory to facilitate preliminary blade design and in particular, twist-bend coupled blade designs. The long term goal is to couple the nonlinear composite beam model with an aerodynamic model to perform fully coupled aeroelastic optimization of wind turbine blades.