online poll by Opinion Stage
Dr. Raymond Friedman (1922 – 2014)
A Lifetime in Science
Impressive in his work, inspiring to others and dedicated to his profession, Dr. Ray Friedman leaves a legacy of devotion to fire research.
With a background as a research chemist, Dr. Friedman held positions in research and management at Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Atlantic Research Corporation (ARC) and Factory Mutual Research Corporation (FMRC). As vice president and general manager of the research division of ARC, he directed fundamental studies on various kinetics and combustion problems, particularly in solid propellants combustion, flame extinguishment, flame structure and ionized combustion gases.
In 1969, he joined FMRC as scientific director and manager of the basic research department. In 1975, he became vice president and manager of the research division (now part of Factory Mutual Insurance Company [FM Global]), a position from which he retired in 1987. He was, at the time, an internationally known scientist prominent in the Combustion Institute and other professional associations. His presence brought renown to FMRC as a leading institution for research on combustion and fires. Soon after he arrived, his reputation was the determining factor in drawing the famous combustion scientist Dr. George H. Markstein to join FMRC to work with him.
Ray devoted much time to the training of young scientists, and his inquisitive and inventive mind was instrumental in driving many of the early advances in the understanding of fire phenomena. While at FMRC, Ray wrote many papers reviewing the state of the art in the field of fire research, which were intended to guide further research. But, by far his most significant contribution was that of enhancing FMRC’s scientific reputation and creating an environment that inspired other scientific researchers. His leadership established the foundation of an enduring legacy that is still felt at FM Global.
He devoted much effort to the formation of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, and he received many professional and academic honors. They included positions of leadership with the Combustion Institute (president, 1978-82), the American Chemical Society’s Division of Fuel Chemistry (chairman, 1964), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Academy of Science (NAS). Ray was also a member of the Cosmos Club.
Known for his keen wit and analytical mind, Ray enjoyed classical music at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach and at Tanglewood in the Berkshires. The eclectic nature of Ray’s intellect is reflected in the wide range of his publications. He is the author of the definitive text on fire prevention, Principles of Fire Protection Chemistry and Physics, and several other publications. Ray leaves his adored best friend and wife of 68 years, Myra. He is missed by those who had the privilege to know him and work with him.
Franco Tamanini, FM Global
Prof. Toshisuke Hirano (1939-2014)
We are surrounded by sorrow and sadness by the news that Prof. Hirano’s passed away during the week of the 11th IAFSS conference in Christchurch. A message was given at the last day of the conference by the new IAFSS chair Prof. van Hees. It will be difficult to think about the world around us and about our fire safety community without Prof. Hirano being its member.
Prof. Hirano was a gentleman, a scholar, a colleague, a mentor and a pre-eminent leader in fire safety research. He was one of the founding fathers of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, and for 18 years served as the Association Secretary, Vice-Chairman and the Chairman. He was the local organiser for the 2nd Symposium and acted as program chair for the 5th and 6th Symposia. Through his work, he has defined who we are as the fire safety community. He mentored our past chair Prof. Dlugogorski when he took his first steps as a fire safety researcher in Australia.
His passing away is a great loss to everyone. As a scientist, he has made important contributions to the archival literature on fires and explosions, including seminal papers on flame spread. But his contributions are too many to mention. He has authored papers in almost every area of fire research.
In the Asia-Oceania region, he was the one who brought together fire researchers from Australia, China, Japan and Russia to establish the Asia-Oceania Association for Fire Science and Technology. We all own him a great deal of gratitude for everything he has done for improving fire safety in our region.
With this message we would like to pass our condolences to Prof. Hirano’s family, and to all our colleagues in Japan and around the world.
Prof. Hirano will remain in our memories and in our thoughts. An obituary will follow on this website.
Prof. B. Dlugogorski Prof. P. van Hees
Immediate Past Chairman of IAFSS Chairman of IAFSS
Fire Safety Science News #36 – February, 2014
The February, 2014 edition of Fire Safety Science News, the official newsletter of the IAFSS is now available online. The latest issue is dedicated to Professor Philip Thomas, one of the founders of IAFSS. Three invited authors write featured articles on the TB117 flammability test of upholstered furniture in California another featured article on the role of creativity and technical knowledge in the design and engineering of fire safety in buildings and many other contributed pieces with fire safety science news from around the world.
Fire Safety Science News #36 – February, 2014 by IAFSS
Click here to directly download a PDF of #36 – Fire Safety Science News
IAFSS Committee Meeting Minutes and Agendas
In preparation for the full IAFSS Committee meeting this Thursday in Christchurch, the IAFSS Secretary has shared the following minutes and agenda to the membership:
Minutes of General Business Meeting of the IAFSS at the University of Maryland on June 23, 2011
Agenda for the General Business Meeting of the IAFSS on Thursday in Christchurch
Agenda for the Full Committee meeting of the IAFSS on Thursday in Christchurch
For questions on the minutes or agendas, please contact the IAFSS Secretary, [email protected]
Follow the IAFSS on Twitter, Facebook and Linked In!
Updates from the 11th IAFSS Symposium will be shared throughout the web, featured on this website, our new Facebook Group, Twitter Feed and also on our existing LinkedIn Group. Use Hashtag #11IAFSS.
Fire Science Image Competition Submissions
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11th Symposium Preview Papers Now Online
Publications to be presented at the 11th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science are now online at the IAFSS Digital Archive: http://www.iafss.org/publications/fss/11. These papers are in draft form as the final version will be uploaded after the symposium, once prepared for printing.
11th Symposium Meeting Information
Agendas for various meetings of the IAFSS Committee to be held in Christchurch are available below with all details bar the dial-in telephone details and room information.
Meeting agendas are available for:
The Full Committee of the IAFSS on Sunday
The Full Committee of the IAFSS on Thursday
The General Business Meeting of the IAFSS on Thursday
For more information on the meetings or agendas, please contact the IAFSS Secretary, Margaret Simonson McNamee.
Obituary: Professor Philip Thomas
It is with the great sadness we announce the sudden death of Professor Philip Thomas. Philip along with Professor Kawagoe was the founding father of the IAFSS and he was dearly cherished by those of us who knew and worked with him.
Dr. Thomas worked in fire safety research at the Fire Research Station (subsequently part of the Building Research Establishment) for over thirty years, from the early 1950s to the mid 1980s. In that time he published numerous Fire Research Notes and over one hundred journal papers on fire phenomena, many of which are still regularly cited today. Since retiring from the Fire Research Station in 1986 he has remained active in fire research and continues to publish in Fire Safety Journal and elsewhere. The importance of his contributions to the field cannot be overstated. It was once said that he worked on almost every problem related to fire from spontaneous ignition, to wildland fires and from statistical analyses to fire modelling. He was chair of TC 92 in ISO and convenor of W14 for the CIB. He was the founding Chair of IAFSS and the Philip Thomas Medal of Excellence is named in his honor. He worked at a time when journal publications were not so numerous, but his writing mostly contained in Fire Research Notes show his prolific nature and his boundless interests. The new researcher to fire would be lacking not to have read the works of P H Thomas.
An obituary by Prof. Geoffrey Cox is available for download
An obituary in the Telegraph is available here
Those of you who would like to send their condolences to Joanna, his wife, can do so via this email address. A private family funeral will take place this week Friday 24th January. A Memorial Celebration will be held on the 1st March in Somerset. Colleagues are welcome. More information is available here.
Below, Prof. James Quintiere has shared some memories and words of conciliation with the community.
January 14, 2014To Joanna, and the Children and Family of Phil Thomas,As words are a small expression of sadness, I write these to give some solace. However, it is the loss of Phil that is difficult to bear. Those that had a chance to know him in the field of fire research can only view his passing as a loss of continuity to the field. Those that never met him, missed a lot. To me he was a mentor, a colleague, and a friend to enjoy. A fire meeting was not the same without Phil. The first time we engaged was in the wee-hours of the morning on the lawn at Penn State in 1972 attending a combustion conference. I listened to him and John deRis tour the issues of fire research. I have to say that discussion was in many ways my hallmark to the field. It displayed a humanity and soul to fire research that always accompanied time with Phil. Memories can only speak for themselves: After a tour of his old haunts in Tokyo, Phil called to say if I was ok, I said I’ll be down for breakfast shortly, he said it was lunch; Along with Geoff Cox we toasted Bernie McCaffrey as he faded from us; At international standards meetings Phil displayed compassionate diplomacy and a guiding hand; At a Paris café we discussed the formation of IAFSS, but Phil was quick to remember Brooke Shields sitting at the next table; and most of all it was the friendship and hospitality he bestowed on all who came to visit.It was remarked that Phil touched every problem in fire research before anyone else. For those that read the past literature, they will find this to be very true. His work was perfuse, analytical and insightful. When you got to the end, you had a tangible equation as his answer, and he showed why it emerged. He spread his view of fire broadly, as I believe he viewed life. Phil was intellectually curious and concerned about truth and knowledge. He educated me in more than fire research.Several weeks ago, John deRis was visiting and we had occasion to reminisce into the wee hours of the morning. The next day we telephoned Phil. That call expressed our fondness, and longing for the memories with Phil. Those memories will be carried on.Sincerely,Jim Quintiere
Professor Emeritus
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr Natalia Flores-Quiroz is a researcher with experience in fire safety engineering. She worked for five years as a fire safety engineer in the mining industry before joining academia. She holds a MSc in fire safety from Ghent University, and her PhD focused on Fire investigations in Informal Settlements. Currently she is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University, where her main research areas are reconstruction of incidents in low-income settlements (i.e., informal settlements, refugee camps) and wildland urban interface (WUI) fires.
Bronwyn Forrest is a 3rd year PhD student at the University of Waterloo, conducting multi-disciplinary research investigating human physiological response to fire exposure. Bronwyn graduated in 2017 with a BSc. Honours Kinesiology and in 2020 with a MASc. Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering (Heat Release Rate in Ventilation-Limited Furniture Fires) before merging her two degrees in her PhD research. As a senior graduate student in the Fire Research Group, Bronwyn spear-heads large-scale fire experiments, mentors junior graduate and undergraduate students, and has recently set-up a new ‘human exposure lab’ at the Fire Research Facility where she leads new research in that area. Since her induction into the world of fire science, Bronwyn has grown more and more passionate about the multi-faceted nature of emerging fire safety challenges. Through innovative research, she hopes to make meaningful contributions that help shape changes to fire safety over the course of her career.
Dr. (HDR) Eric Guillaume has worked in fire sciences since 1998. He formerly led the fire behaviour department of SNCF (French Railway), then changed company in 2005 to join LNE (The French National Laboratory for Testing and Metrology) as head of Fire safety studies department, and later as head of research for whole testing activities of LNE. Nowadays (since 2015), he works for Efectis France, first as Technical Director and more recently as General Manager of the company, leading one of the most important fire testing and fire safety engineering companies in Europe (With approx. 180 people and 28 M€ turnover)
Dr. Albert Simeoni is Professor and the Department Head of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He is the WPI site director of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center (WIRC), an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the United States. Dr. Simeoni has served IAFSS by being chair or co-chair of the Wildland Fire track (2014, 2020 and 2023), Co-chair of the Awards Committee for the Best Thesis Awards (2023), Associate-Editor of Fire Safety Journal (2010-2015), member of the Editorial Board of Fire Safety Journal (since 2016), and Contributing Editor of Fire Safety Science News (since 2011).
Brian J. Meacham, PhD, PE (CT&MA), EUR ING, CEng (UK), FIFireE, FSFPE, is the Managing Principal of Meacham Associates. He develops risk-informed performance-based solutions to complex building and infrastructure challenges, provides peer-review services, and undertakes building and fire regulatory system studies. He also conducts research in these areas as well as in sustainable and fire resilient built environments and fire safety technologies. Brian has authored more than 300 publications, given more than 300 presentations and has been awarded more than $4M in research funding. His prior positions include Associate Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Principal at Arup, Technical Director and Research Director at SFPE, and fire safety engineer in Europe and the USA. Brian is Chair of the ICC Performance Code Committee, Chair of the NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Risk Assessment Methods, Immediate Past Chair of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS), a Past President of the SFPE, and a past Chair of the Inter-jurisdictional Regulatory Collaboration Committee (IRCC). He is a licensed Professional Engineer in CT and MA, a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (UK), a registered European Engineer (EUR ING), a Fellow of the SFPE, and a Fulbright Global Scholar.
Kazunori Harada is a professor of architecture & architectural engineering at Kyoto University, Japan. He has a career in fire research for over 35 years. He has authored 14 IAFSS symposium papers. His expertise covers the fire resistance of construction materials, smoke movement and control, burning of combustibles in open and compartment, performance-based code & design of buildings and so on. He serves as a vice president of AOAFST, Asia-Oceania Association of Fire Science and Technology. He also serves as the Convenor of ISO/TC92/SC4 WG9, calculation methods for fire safety engineering (FSE), which develops calculation standards concerning FSE.
Dr Xinyan Huang is an Associate Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Fire Safety Engineering. He received his PhD from Imperial College London, MSc from UC San Diego, and BEng from Southeast University, and was a Postdoc at UC Berkeley. Dr Huang is a Combustion Scientist and a Fire Safety Engineer who has co-authored over 200 journal papers. He is an Associate Editor of Fire Technology and International Journal of Wildland Fire, an editorial member of J. Building Engineering, Fire Safety J. and Fire and Materials, a Chartered Building Services and Fire Engineer, a committee member for HK Fire Safety Code, and a Fire Expert for HK High Court. He receives the NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund, Bernard Lewis Fellowship and Sugden Best Paper Award from Combustion Institute, “5 under 35” and Bono Award from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE).
Arnaud Trouvé is Professor and Chair in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland in College Park, USA. He joined the Faculty in 2001 with a Ph.D. (1989) and Engineering Degree (1985) from École Centrale of Paris, France, and with previous experience as a combustion research engineer. Professor Trouvé’s research interests include fire modeling and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); application of data assimilation to fire and combustion; and physical modeling of combustion- and fire-related phenomena, including compartment fires, wildland fires and explosions. Professor Trouvé is a Fellow of the Combustion Institute and the recipient of the 2017 FORUM Sjölin Award. He has served on the editorial boards of the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, Combustion and Flame, and Fire Technology, and is currently on the editorial boards of Combustion Theory and Modelling and the Fire Safety Journal. Professor Trouvé is also a past Chair of the US Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute (ESSCI) and a past Member of the Executive Board of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). He is a co-Chair of a recent initiative endorsed by IAFSS and called the “IAFSS Working Group on Measurement and Computation of Fire Phenomena” (the MaCFP Working Group) and the past Chair of a new network of leading higher-education institutions and research laboratories in fire safety engineering called the International Fire Safety Consortium (IFSC).
Dr Felix Wiesner is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia and study the role of engineered timber in fire safety. I work in the Faculty of Forestry as part of the Wood Science department. My research focus has mostly been experimental, considering fire dynamics in timber compartments and the structural fire capacity of engineered timber products. In addition, I am interested in the performance of timber in exterior building or infrastructure setting. This closely interfaces with wildfire considerations for the wildland urban interface (WUI), especially when it comes to smouldering.
Prof. Yuji Nakamura is Full Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT), appointed as Affiliate Full Professor in Center for Fire Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science (since 2014). He currently serves the Head of Energy Conversion Laboratory and appointed as Department Chair since 2024. Prof. Nakamura has made professional service in Fire Science Community served as Management Committee of IAFSS during 2021-2023, worked as Co-chair of LOC in the most recent IAFSS symposium at Tsukuba, acting Associate Editor of Fire Technology since 2014 and board member of Fire Safety Journal since 2017.
ROGAUME Thomas is an Professor at the University of Poitiers – Pprime Institute (UPR3346 CNRS), FRANCE.
Yu Wang is a professor at the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He got joint Ph.D. from USTC and the City University of Hong Kong in 2016 and had working experience at the University of Edinburgh, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and National University of Singapore before returning to China in 2020. His primary research areas are high-rise building fire and large outdoor fire. Yu has published over 50 SCI journal papers, and is currently an Associate Editor in Fire Technology and Editorial Board Member in Fire Safety Journal. He initiated the first English fire course at USTC, Introduction of Fire Dynamics, reported by China News and People’s Daily Online (over 260,000 audiences). In recent years, he has received SFPE Global 5 Under 35 Award, Youth May Fourth Medal (Anhui Province), Young Faculty Career Award (USTCAF), and some Best Paper/Presentation/Poster/Image Awards in IAFSS or AOSFST.
Brian Lattimer, Ph.D. is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech where he performs experimental and computational research on fire safety and disaster resilience. He has nearly 30 years of experience in fire related research. His research areas include material behavior in fires, fire dynamics, suppression agents, heat transfer from fires to surfaces, structural response during fire, and firefighting technology.
Dr. Shuna Ni is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her Ph.D. degree at Texas A&M University in 2018 and her Master’s degree at Tongji University in 2013. Dr. Ni’s research focuses on fire forensics, structural fire engineering, WUI fire resilience, fire safety of tall mass-timber buildings and fire-related multiple hazards. Her research has been funded by National Science Foundation, National Institute of Justice, Fire Protection Research Foundation, University Transportation Centers under the Department of Transportation, Grand Challenges Grants Program at the University of Maryland and industrial partners.
Dr Wojciech Węgrzyński is with ITB, that is the Polish Building Research Institute in Warsaw. He currently holds the position of the Deputy Head of Fire Research Department and the Professor of the Institute, and a Director at SFPE Europe. He is the Author of 40 peer-reviewed papers published in all of the primary FSE journals. His main area of interest is the fundamentals of compartment fire dynamics and standardized fire testing, and also: use of computational fluid dynamics in fire, wind and fire interaction and evaluation of the effects of the spread of smoke in buildings. His research is focused on the impact of the architectural context of the building on the smoke control performance, as well as finding solutions to make the smoke exhaust systems cheaper and more efficient. Member of the Sub-committee for Research of the IAFSS. 2018 NFPA Harry C. Bigglestone Award Recipient; 2019 Jack Watts Award Recipient; 2020 SFPE 5 Under 35 Award Recipient. Member of Editorial Board of ‘Fire Technology. Hosts a fire podcast at 
Jennifer Wen is currently Professor of Energy Resilience in the School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences, University of Surrey as Professor. Previously, Jennifer held positions at Computational Dynamics Limited (founding vendor of STAR-CCM), British Gas plc, South Bank University, Kingston University London, and University of Warwick. She is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Vice-Chair for Research for the International Association for Fire Safety Science. Jennifer is also a member and sub-task leader of the European Safety Panel on Hydrogen Safety (EHSP) established by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) of the European Commission. She is an Associate Editor for the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute.
Enrico Ronchi is an Associate Professor at Lund University, Sweden. His research and education activities are focused on evacuation and human behaviour in case of building fires and wildfires. His work has been published in over 150 publications (including >90 peer-reviewed journal papers). He is currently Associate Editor for the journals Fire Technology and Safety Science and member of the editorial board of the Fire Safety Journal.