The 2011 POAC Founders Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. Joachim Schwarz.

Dr. Joachim Schwarz attended the Technical University Hannover, Graduation as Dipl.-Ing. in Civil Engineering in 1962. In 1970 he received his Dr.-Ing. graduating with the thesis entitled "Ice Forces on Piles". From 1971 to 1974 he was a Visiting Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor at the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research in Iowa City, USA. In 1974 Joachim returned to Germany where he became the Director of the Ice and Environment Department at the Hamburg Ship Model Basin, GmbH (HSVA).

During his career at HSVA he was involved with many research projects related to ice both in the ice basin and in the field. For example in 1979/80 he was a member of the German Antarctic - Expedition doing a pre-site survey for the German Antarctic Station. He also led six icebreaking expeditions in various parts of the Arctic.

Dr. Schwarz published numerous important scientific papers and was very active with both POAC and the IAHR Symposium on Ice. He was the President of POAC from 1992-1994 and hosted the POAC'93 conference in Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Schwarz has attended virtually all of the POAC conferences since the inception of this conference and presented many papers including keynote lectures. He has chaired many committees and represented Germany on several international committees related to ice forces and offshore codes. He has also been recognized for his research contributions by the IAHR where he was awarded the IAHR Ice Research and Engineering Award in 2006. In addition he was awarded the prestigious Bundesverdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Cross of Merit from the Republic of Germany) in 2007.

Photograph showing POAC President Kubat presenting the award to Dr. Schwarz