FSRI Research Engineer, Gavin Horn, Elevated to Fellow by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers

Gavin Horn, research engineer at the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), was elevated to the status of Fellow for the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) during the organization’s annual conference in Detroit, MI, last week. Fellow is the highest professional honor given to SFPE members. Recipients represent a distinguished group of professionals who have attained significant stature and accomplishments in fire protection engineering and have belonged to the SFPE for ten or more years.

Awardees are nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions in the field and valuable service to SFPE. Gavin’s honor is shared by five other professionals in the 2022 SFPE class of Fellows – as well as FSRI team members, research engineer Jason Floyd, director of research, Dan Madrzykowski, and vice president and executive director, Steve Kerber.

During his acceptance speech, Gavin humbly turned the spotlight to the FSRI team. “This is an honor that speaks much more to the team than it does to any individual,” he said. “It’s a gift to be able to continue to work with so many talented staff, students, and post-doctoral researchers at FSRI. This recognition doesn’t happen without the support, the guidance, and the hard work of that entire community.”

Gavin has published more than 100 articles and delivered numerous invited lectures centered around his research on firefighter health and safety, first responder technology development, and material testing. He is currently leading multiple research projects at FSRI, including Training Fire Exposures from the Source: Developing a Risk-Benefit Framework, Post-Fire Exposures to Fire Investigators and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) focused studies. Among his recent accomplishments, Gavin co-authored the peer-reviewed journal article “Hierarchy of Contamination Control in the Fire Service” with National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), which led to the development of the “Comprehensive Cancer Risk Reduction Strategies for the Fire Service” online course to help fire departments better understand sources of contamination and control methods.

Prior to joining the FSRI team, Gavin served as the Director of IFSI Research Programs at the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) for 15 years and as a firefighter/engineer with the Savoy (IL) Fire Department. He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as a master's degree in fire protection engineering from the University of Maryland.