Imperial College is a founder member of the University of London, and is committed to the pursuit of excellence in both teaching and research across a broad range of subjects covering Science, Technology and Medicine. It employs a total of some 850 academic members of staff, with a further 1100 employed under the general heading of research staff. In the last academic year it had 6,245 undergraduate students; 1,105 postgraduate M.Sc. students and 1,474 postgraduate researchers. Imperial College has 5 independent engineering departments covering Aeronautics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. In the most recent UK Government assessment of University research all of these departments were rated at the highest level attainable (5*).

Within the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering there is considerable experience in both offshore and coastal engineering. Some 20 Ph.D. students are currently working within this area, and specialist options are provided at an MEng. level on Coastal Engineering, Applied Hydrodynamics, and Numerical Fluid Mechanics. The Department is equipped with a large Hydraulics Laboratory that is used for both teaching and research. The facilities within this laboratory are nationally leading and internationally competitive. Within the Hydraulics or Fluid Mechanics Section there are 4 full-time academic staff members; three of who are concerned with various aspects of wave modelling.

This group has several on-going and long-term UK Government-funded research programmes into waves, including the effects of wave-current interactions, wind-wave interactions and the study of extreme 3-D waves. The group is involved in an existing MAST III project concerning the Kinematics and Dynamics of Wave Current Interactions (KADWCI) and has also received support under the Human Capital and Mobility programme.

Within the Department as a whole, the academic staff is responsible for a total of 46 long-term research projects, of which 29 are funded nationally and 17 have EU support.