2024 Summer School

Grunde Jomaas is the FRISSBE ERA Chair holder and the Head of the Department for Research for Fire-Safe Sustainable Environment at the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG). He is also a professor at the University of Primorska in the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies (FAMNIT). Professor Jomaas has a BSc (Summa Cum Laude) in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland (2001) and a MSc (2005) and PhD (2008) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University. Professor Jomaas has a broad experience in experimental combustion and fire safety research, including high pressure premixed flame research and flammability in microgravity. In the FRISSBE project, he focuses on the link between fire safety and sustainability, both from a theoretical and experimental perspective. The main experimental research topics are photovoltaics, batteries, biobased materials, and mass timber.

Dr Andrea Lucherini holds the position of Senior Researcher within the Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG). Earlier, he worked with world-leading research teams in Belgium (Ghent University), Australia (The University of Queensland) and Denmark (Technical University of Denmark). Andrea's field of expertise comprises construction materials engineering, with a specialisation in fire safety science and engineering. To date, Andrea's research has primarily focused on advanced fire dynamics and heat transfer for performance-based fire safety engineering, the performance of modern construction materials and systems during and after a fire, and advanced experimental methodologies for fire testing.

Dr Martina Manes is a Lecturer in Civil Engineering at the University of Liverpool. Her research includes the investigation of international fire statistics, evaluation of fire risk assessment and optimization of fire resilience. She is a professionally qualified civil engineer in Italy and her research outcomes updated the BS PD 7974-7:2003 fire safety data with current fire statistics of England and the USA. She also participated in the EU FireStat project funded by the European Commission. Experience with interdisciplinary teams of experts was built on collaborations between academia and industry, participation in technical steering groups for MHCLG research, consultancy for the NFCC and private companies, and studies with experts in engineering and social sciences.

Prof Bart Merci obtained his PhD in electro-mechanical engineering at Ghent University, on turbulent combustion modelling in CFD simulations non-premixed jet flames (2000). Bart Merci is now Senior Full Professor in Combustion and Fire Safety Science and Engineering (FSSE) at Ghent University (UGent). The FSSE team consists of about 15 researchers (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers). His main expertise is fluid mechanics aspects in turbulent reacting flows. He is particularly specialised in fluid mechanics aspects related to fire and smoke dynamics. He co-authored about 200 peer review papers, 1 book and several chapters in books. Since 2010 Bart Merci is the Director of the International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering on behalf of Ghent University. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Fire Safety Journal. He is guest professor at several institutes and has won multiple national and international awards. He is Co-Chair of the IAFSS Working Group MaCFP (Measurement and Computation of Fire Phenomena) and is member of multiple editorial boards and scientific committees.

Dr Michael Spearpoint is the Research Leader at OFR Consultants and is based in the Manchester office. He previously was an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and before that worked at BRE in the UK. While at the University of Canterbury he taught courses in active fire protection systems, human behaviour, and fire engineering design. He has published over 200 research articles on a wide range of fire science and engineering topics. Current research areas include means of escape from tall residential buildings, fires in parking buildings, the performance of laminated glass in fire, and fire safety of mass timber. He has an MSc in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland and a PhD in Fire Engineering from the University of Canterbury. He is a Chartered Engineer through the Institution of Fire Engineers.

Prof José L. Torero is a Fire Engineer, Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London (UCL). He is the author of more than 250 scientific papers in fire safety engineering and an active participant in the development of codes and standards globally. He is the past Chair of the ASCE Fire Protection Engineering Committee as well as a main author of the Warren Centre Reports on Fire Safety Engineering. His project work is focused on complex infrastructure and unique solutions. He is a Fellow of SFPE, the recipient of the Arthur B. Guise Medal from the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (USA) and the Rasbash Medal from the Institution of Fire Engineers (UK).

Dr Ruben Van Coile is Associate Professor 'Structural Fire Safety' at Ghent University, Belgium. Previously, he worked at WSP in London as a (structural) fire engineer. His work focusses on structural fire engineering and the application of risk and reliability methods. Dr Van Coile received the 2018 NFPA Bigglestone Award for "excellence in the communication of fire protection concepts" in recognition of his research work. He has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council to develop a knowledge-based approach to fire testing.

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. Director at SFPE Europe. He is an 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, as well as fire testing of new technologies in civil engineering. 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 the Editorial Board of 'Fire Technology'. Hosts a fire podcast at www.firescienceshow.com

Michael is a full-time Lecturer in Engineering Education, with experience in both research and industry. Skilled in fire engineering, integrated design, critical thinking and engineering pedagogy. A professional with a PhD in Fire Engineering Education from the University of Edinburgh. Michael is the External Examiner on the International Masters in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE); and programme director of the Fire Safe Design MArch at UCL. Michael joined UCL in 2019 from Foster+Partners, where he was an Associate Fire Engineer for almost seven years. Throughout his time in professional practice, he participated in the design of over 300 unique projects in our built environment. Notable projects include the Regent Street Apple Store, Maggie's at the Christie, and the Cleveland Health Campus.