IAFSS 2021 Virtual General Meeting, Part 1, 24 March 2021 PROXY VOTE FORM Download here. Please send the completed form to [email protected]
Call for submissions for and Image Gallery entitled “Diversity in Fire Safety Science”
We would like to embrace the diversity of fire safety at the 13th IAFSS Symposium. As one initiative, we are delighted to announce the introduction of an Image Gallery highlighting “Diversity in Fire Safety Science” at the 13th IAFSS Symposium. “Diversity” in this context could mean topics, team members, or any uniqueness in your research that relates to equity, diversity and inclusivity of all. For this, we are collecting images from members of IAFSS and participants at the 13th Symposium. These will be assembled into a display on the virtual Symposium platform as one way to embrace and profile our diversity!
Instructions
- Send us an image of “Diversity” from your organization/group/company/research
- Size: 16:9 (33.867 cm x 19.05 cm) – high definition is best as it can be adjusted if needed
- Format: powerpoint slide or pdf
- One slide per each organization/group/company
- Get permission first if any individuals’ faces are shown in your slide (IAFSS will not be responsible for this)
Please note: submitted images will be used only for Image Gallery of “Diversity in Fire Safety Science” during the 13th IAFSS symposium.
Please submit your slide by April 1st to https://www.dropbox.com/request/4Ph1CE2E9MtHTGLWTHTx
Any questions/comments are welcome, please contact us ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) any time.
Best Regards,
Diversity task group (Anne, Beth, Iza, and Sayaka)
Call for bids to organize & host the 15th IAFSS Symposium, Europe, 2026
The IAFSS Committee welcome bids for the 15th IAFSS Symposium, to be held in Europe in 2026.
Selection of the host for the symposium will be made by the new Management Committee at its April meeting, which will be associated with the virtual 13th IAFSS Symposium organized and hosted by the University of Waterloo. An exact date will be defined and communicated by those sending in a bid.
If you are interested in hosting the 15th IAFSS Symposium please click here for further information.
13th IAFSS Symposium Poster Deadline – January 30
Poster submissions have re-opened on Easy Chair for the 13th IAFSS Symposium. Final poster submission (NEW contributions): January 30, 2021. Read more here: https://uwaterloo.ca/international-symposium-on-fire-safety-science/
In light of developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19), and the need to protect our own and extended communities, the Symposium Planning Committee, in consultation with the IAFSS Executive and Management Committees, has decided that the 13th IAFSS Symposium will be an on-line event. Further information can be found on the FAQ webpage.
Workshop to define a Fire Safety Mission for Europe
The IAFSS recently hosted a meeting in Brussels to define a Fire Safety Mission for Europe. A summary of the workshop and presentations are now available!
Workshop presentations
WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM?
- Why fire safety is important in tomorrow’s world, Patrick van Hees, Chair IAFSS and ISO TC92
- Lessons Learned from Fire Research in H2020, the example of wildfire research, Nicolas Faivre, DG RTD
WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
- Fire Information Exchange Platform, Georgios Katsarakis, DG GROW
- What do we mean by Missions in Horizon Europe? Neville Reeve, DG RTD
WHY A FIRE SAFETY MISSION – STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES?
- Funding Agency: Björn Sundström, Chairman of the Board, Brandforsk
- Fire Fighter: Pieter Maes, Brussels Fire Department
- Fire Engineer: Brian Meacham, President-Elect, SFPE
- Academia: Guillermo Rein, Imperial College
- Industry: Jonathan Crozier, pinfa and Quentin deHults, Modern Building Alliance (MBA)
IAFSS Workshop: Agenda 2030 for a Fire Safe World
The IAFSS will be holding a workshop on the afternoon of Tuesday, 11 September, just ahead of the ESFSS in Nancy, France.
Although great strides have been made in reducing the negative impacts of fire over the past few decades, the global impact of fire remains staggering. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates global burn deaths to 180,000 annually, the vast majority of these in low and middle-income countries. Within Europe, more than 3,500 people are killed annually. The losses in the USA are similar. In most developed countries the cost of fire damage is estimated to be at least 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the USA, alone the total cost of fire has been estimated at US$328.5 billion. Global loss due to wildand fire is presently greater than at any time in the past. SwissRe has reported that the combined insurance losses from all wildfires worldwide in 2017 were US$14 billion, the highest ever in a single year. According to Allianz, fires and explosions in the built environment accounted for 59% of 1,807 business interruption claims globally from 2010-2014, resulting in billions of US dollars in loss.
Something must be done to facilitate substantial reduction in these losses. To better characterize the problems and develop solutions, fire safety science and engineering research needs to be integrated into societally-transformative risk mitigation and resiliency initiatives. Grand societal challenges such as changing demographics (an aging and diversely able society), rapid urbanization, the need to be more sustainable, the need to slow climate change, and the need to develop more resilient communities all have fire safety implications. Yet fire safety is rarely thought of as part of the solution to these challenges.
We would like your help in raising the profile of the benefits of fire safety science and engineering research in helping to solve critical societal challenges facing the world. We therefore invite you to participate in the IAFSS Workshop, Agenda 2030 for a Fire Safe World, on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 11, to begin work on this challenge. We have prepared a short White Paper that you should read in advance of the Workshop, which provides additional detail on the challenges and objectives moving forward.
If you accept this challenge and invitation to participate, you will be tasked with helping to draft text that can be used with key research funding entities, governmental agencies, and NGOs worldwide to facilitate funding to advance a fire safe world. Participation will be limited to the first 50 registrants. Please register only if you want to actively help develop a research strategy, talking points, and potentially white papers, which will be used to facilitate the generation of directed funding towards fire safety science research to address emerging societal challenges. Your participation will not require you to sign a joint statement on research needs although this will be encouraged as one possible outcome of the Workshop.
Registration for the workshop can be done here and register for ESFSS here. The tentative workshop agenda is below.
Tentative Workshop Agenda, 13:00-17:00, Tuesday, 11 September 2018
13:00-14:00 Introductory presentations to frame the challenges
14:00-16:00 Break-out groups to work on strategies to address future challenges
16:00-17:00 Reporting, consensus development, and framing steps forward
As we get closer to the date of the Workshop, additional information will be posted, and registrants may receive additional information by email. Thank you for your interest in this important initiative, and we look forward to seeing you in Nancy in September!
Second Announcement and Call for Papers – 3rd ESFSS
The 3rd European Symposium on Fire Safety Science will be held on September 12-14, 2018 at the University of Lorraine, in Nancy, France.
Following the conference held in Cyprus (2015), the 3rd ESFSS, will be the third edition of a series of symposia organized in Europe, with the participation of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). The aim is to gather researchers from and beyond Europe to have exchanges and discussions about fire safety science.
The submission site is now open. You may submit your paper on the submission platform: https://esfss2018.sciencesconf.org/ The submission deadline for papers (6 pages) is March 15, 2018. More information on the the Symposia webpage.
Congratulations Poster and Image Awardees from the 12th IAFSS Symposium!
A number of both established researchers and students were recognized for their fire science posters and images at the 12th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science. The awardees are listed below, congratulations!
Judges Choice Outstanding Image
- Longhua Hu, “Blooming Fire”
- Laurens van Gelderen, Hamed Farmahini Farahani, Ali Rangwala and Grunde Jomaas, Boilover of a crude oil burning in an ice cavity
Judges Choice Outstanding Student Poster
- Sriram Bharath Hariharan, Huahua Xiao, Evan Sluder, Michael Gollner and Elaine Oran, The Structure of the Blue Whirl: A Soot-free Vortex Phenomenon
- Park Seong-Geun, Shin Kyung-Jae, Lee Yu-Hyeon and Min Gi-Yo, Mechanical Properties of Structural Steels at High Temperature
Judges Choice Outstanding Poster
- Andy Rodriguez, Xinyan Huang, Shmuel Link, Sandra Olson, Paul Ferkul and Carlos Fernandez-Pello, Piloted Ignition of Cylindrical PMMA and Wood
- Torben Grumstrup, Jason Forthofer and Mark Finney, Wildfire Flame and Plume Attachment on Slopes
- Masayuki Mizuno, Kosuke Fujii, Hiroyuki Kadokura, Fuqiu Wang, Tomonori Sano and Ai Sekizawa, Development of Mathematical Model of Evacuation Flow in a Staircase Based on a Survey Result of a Real Evacuation Drill in a High-Rise Office Building
Delegates Choice Outstanding Image
- Sriram Bharath Hariharan, Michael Gollner and Elaine Oran, The Blue Whirl in Transition
Delegates Choice Outstanding Poster
- Yuqi Hu, Nieves Fernandez Anez and Guillermo Rein, Review of Emissions of Regional Haze Episodes from Smouldering Peat Fire
Honorable Mentions
- Carmen Gorska Putynska, Juan P. Hidalgo and Jose Torero, Self-extinguishment of Exposed Cross Laminated Timber Walls in Compartment Fires
- Yoshinari Kobayashi, Yusuke Konno, Xinyan Huang, Shinji Nakaya, Mitsuhiro Tsue, Nozomu Hashimoto, Osamu Fujita and Carlos Fernandez-Pello, Dripping Behaviors of Melted Insulation in Wire Fire under Opposed Flow
Thank you to all the judges and organizers, who were led by Prof. Naian Liu, USTC.
Nominate for the IAFSS Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards
The International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) is launching two new awards, the Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards. These two awards are to be presented for the first time at the 12th Symposium in Lund, Sweden in June 2017.
The Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards recognise meritorious achievement by members of the IAFSS who are early in their careers and have contributed a body of work that is of significance to any area of fire safety science. The two awards are distinguished by the period of time from completion of the candidates’ most recent educational degree (Ph.D., M.Sc.).
Eligibility to the Proulx Early Career Award
For the Proulx Award, candidates must be within five years from completion of their most recent degree at the time of nomination (i.e., Oct 15, 2016). The award commemorates Dr. Guylene Proulx (1960-2009), an expert in human behaviour in fire at National Research Council Canada, and IAFSS Board member at the time she passed away.
Eligibility to the Magnusson Early Career Award
For the Magnusson Award, candidates must be within five to ten years from completion of their most recent degree at the time of nomination (i.e., Oct 15, 2016). The award commemorates Prof. Sven Erik Magnusson (1938-2014), pioneer of parametric fires and risk management at Lund University, Sweden. He was one of the driving forces during the start-up of IAFSS educational committee by drafting the first education curriculum for fire safety engineering.
Privileges of the recipient
Each of the awards consists of a grant of US$4000, a plaque, and free registration for the Symposium.
Each recipient will deliver at the Symposium a review paper drawn from his/her body of work. Each recipient will be asked to prepare a paper, as per submission guidelines of the Symposium (an exceptional extension to the submission date will be granted for these papers). Papers will undergo peer review and if accepted will be presented during breakout sessions and included in the Symposium proceedings.
Selection Process
The awards will be administered together with all other IAFSS awards. The Awards Committee will nominate a Chair for Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards who will call upon three co‐Chairs (one representing each region). For each eligible candidate, the Chair and co‐Chairs will request at least one independent review by a subject matter expert. Chair and co‐chairs will rank submissions based on their own assessment and the views provided by the independent reviewers.
Normally, one Proulx award and one Magnusson award shall be made at each symposium; however, fewer awards will be made, if in the opinion of the committee, candidates of sufficient merit have not been proposed. The awards shall be presented at the IAFSS Symposium.
The four criteria used to select the recipient include:
- Pertinence: Are the subject matters of the body of work within the scope of the science and engineering of fire safety?
- Quality: Are the methodologies applied in the body of work sound and correct?
- Significance: Do the results of the body of work add to our knowledge? Were the results new, accurate, useful and important?
- Impact: Do the results of the body of work have a broad impact in the science and engineering of fire safety?
Important Dates
- September 15, 2016 Period for nominations opens.
- October 15, 2016 Period for nominations ends (at midnight, UK time).
- December 15, 2016 Recipients will be contacted
- February 15, 2017 Deadline for submission of the review paper.
Nomination process
Nominations must be made by an IAFSS member in good standing. Self-nominations will be considered too. During the period for nominations, the following documents should be submitted by email to the Chairman for Proulx and Magnusson Early Career Awards:
Dr Guillermo Rein, Imperial College London, UK, [email protected]
- Cover letter stating why the candidate is worthy of the award. This letter must also show that the candidate is eligible for the award based on the period of time from most recent. Letter must not exceed 2 pages.
- Curriculum Vitae of the candidate (excluding publication list).
- List of publications of the candidate. The list should be comprised of accepted journal articles and accepted conference publications. Publications submitted or in preparation or draft should not be listed.
- Recommendation letters, no more than two pages in length each, from two experts of international standing in the field. No more than two letters from experts will be accepted.
Nominations sought for Emmons, Kawagoe and Thesis Lectureships and Awards
Nominations are now sought for several awards given by the IAFSS every 3 years at its tri-annual symposium. The Emmons Lectureship is given by the Symposium Programme Committee whilst the other four are given by the IAFSS Awards Committee. Nominations are now sought for the Emmons Lectureship (by July 1st, 2016), the Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal (by September 1st, 2016) and the best thesis award (by December 15th, 2016). Please visit the Awards Page for more details on the awards, past recipients and instructions to submit nominations.
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.