The 2020 Howard Emmons Invited Plenary Lectureshipat the 13th IAFSS Symposium in Waterloo, Canada will be delivered by Professor Bogdan Z. Dlugogorski of Charles Darwin University, Australia. The Emmons Lectureship is a prestigious recognition of distinguished career achievement in fire science and engineering awarded by the IAFSS once every three years at its International Symposia on Fire Safety Science.
Professor Dlugogorski is distinguished for his contributions to the field of industrial fire safety and environment protection, especially through innovative development of safe industrial processes. Professor Dlugogorski founded and leads a large research group, with a strong focus on fire safety, and engaged in collaborative research and technology transfer. His achievements are recognized both within Australia and internationally, by a series of awards and fellowships. Professor Dlugogorski’s personal contributions to the field of fire and process safety and environment protection are in four areas: (i) formation of toxic compounds in uncontrolled combustion (with focus on emissions of dioxins/furans, PCB and PAH in chemical fires, and from treated and contaminated wood); (ii) conversion of chlorinated and brominated wastes to useful material (including banned chlorofluorocarbons and halons, and byproduct hydrofluorocarbons); (iii) fire and explosion chemistry (including fundamental studies on chemical mechanisms of self-heating and ignition of coal, sensitization of emulsion explosives and mitigation of NOx formation in blasting); and (iv) mitigation of industrial fires (firefighting foams, gaseous agents and chemical fires).
Prof. Dlugogorski is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, the Combustion Institute, Engineers Australia and Royal Australian Chemical Institute. Professor Dlugogorski has been awarded IAFSS Philip Thomas Medal of Excellence, NFPA Harry C. Bigglestone Award for Excellence and Lifetime Contribution Award from the Asia-Oceania Association for Fire Science and Technology. Professor Dlugogorski is currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President, Research and Innovation at Charles Darwin University, having previously held the positions of Dean of School of Engineering and Information Technology at Murdoch University in Perth and Director of Priority Research Centre for Energy at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a DSc in Fire Safety Science and Engineering (Newcastle), PhD and MEng in Chemical Engineering (Montreal, McGill), and undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Geophysics (Calgary). He is immediate past chairman of the International Association for Fire Safety Science.