
When the Advisory Board of the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of UL Research Institutes convened on June 12, 2023, five new members were added to the existing delegation, including:
- Ofodike (‘DK’) Ezekoye, Professor and Joe C. Walter Jr. Chair in Engineering, University of Texas
- Kimberlee Guenther, Chief Impact Officer, United Way of Metro Chicago
- Brian Meacham, Managing Principal, Meacham Associates
- Guillermo Rein, Professor of Fire Science, Imperial College London and Editor-in-Chief, Fire Technology
- Beth Weckman, Professor and head of Fire Research Group and Fire Safety program in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo
The seven existing members also attended the virtual event:
- Sean DeCrane, Director, Health and Safety Operational Services, International Association of Fire Fighters
- Kenny Fent, Commander, USPHS / Researcher National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
- Sean Gray, Captain, Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services
- Todd Harms, Chief, Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District
- George Healy, Deputy Chief, New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Denise Smith, Professor, Skidmore College
- Denise Smith, Professor, Skidmore College
- Adam Thiel, Commissioner, Philadelphia Fire Department
Every Advisory Board meeting provides FSRI with the opportunity to deliver important updates on key projects, programs and initiatives – and this was no exception drawing participation from around the world.
Steve Kerber, FSRI vice president and executive director, hosted the event from FSRI offices in Columbia, MD, and kicked off the meeting introductions all around and a brief update on the state of the organization. Research engineer, Matt DiDomizio, followed with a profile of the current research project, Heat Transfer and Fire Damage Patterns on Walls for Fire Model Validation. Experiments for the project concluded last spring and there are several related manuscripts in development. Next, research fellow at FSRI, Grayson Bellamy, shared findings from his research into the Characterization of Paints for Infrared Thermography in Fire Research. The research aimed to provide a reference dataset for researchers to determine the optical properties and thermal stability of a set of commercially available paints. The research resulted in a peer-reviewed journal article published in the Fire Safety Journal. Jason Floyd, research engineer, next highlighted FSRI’s work blending research and modeling to investigate fire service near misses. This expertise has been incorporated into several published and pending technical reports. And Angela Bennett, instructional designer manager, closed out the day with a snapshot of coming improvements planned for the Fire Safety Academy, which is scheduled for an upgrade later this year.
The Advisory Board will come together for an in-person meeting on August 3, 2023, following the UL Research Institutes (ULRI) Research Symposium in Evanston, IL. The board meets a minimum of twice a year to provide feedback on data and content presented to them by FSRI.