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Thursday, February 11, 2010

International Master in Fire Safety Engineering still open for European candidates

The SFPE has published a blog reminding that European students can apply to the International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering until 15 April 2010.

Apply following this link http://www.imfse.ugent.be
IMFSE is a a two-year MSc program leading to a joint degree between the Universities of Edinburgh (UK), Ghent (Belgium) and Lund (Sweden). It starts in Sept 2010.

The classes in the first semester, covering basic topics in Fire Safety Engineering (FSE), can be attended in Ghent or Edinburgh. All students spend the second semester in Lund, where emphasis lies on enclosure fire dynamics, risk analysis and human behaviour. In the third semester, classes are again taught in Ghent (for general FSE) or Edinburgh (with focus on structural engineering in the context of FSE). The fourth semester is devoted to the Master’s thesis, hosted by one or more of the three institutes.

For questions, visit here or e-mail: IMFSE@UGent.be

Sunday, February 07, 2010

"major advances in combating fire are unlikely to be achieved simply by continued application of the traditional methods"

The 3rd Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference organized by The International Association of Wildland Fire quotes our dear Emeritus Professor in the first page of the call for papers. This is, indeed, bridging the gap between two fire disciplines.

http://www.iawfonline.org/spokane2010/call_spokane2010.pdf
"Further major advances in combating wildfire are unlikely to be achieved simply by continued application of the traditional methods. What is required is a more fundamental approach which can be applied at the design stage ... Such an approach requires a detailed understanding of fire behaviour ... "
D. Drysdale (1998) - An Introduction to Fire Dynamics (Second edition)

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Congratulations to Dr Steinhaus, Dr Biteau and Dr Roben for their PhD thesis defenses

Congratulations to the three new Doctors of Philosophy from the fire group!

Thomas Steinhaus successfully defended his PhD thesis on the 9th of Nov 2009. The external examiner was Prof. Richard Hull from University of Central Lancashire, and the internal was Dr Guillermo Rein. The thesis title is "Determination of Intrinsic Material Flamability Properties from Material Tests assisted by Numerical Modelling" and he was supervised by Prof Jose Torero and Dr Stephen Welch.

Hubert Biteau defended his PhD thesis on the 21st of Dec 2009. The external examiner was Prof Jean-Pierre Vantelon from Ecole Nationale Superieure de Mecanique et D'Aerotechnique, and the internal was Dr Guillermo Rein. The thesis title is "Thermal and Chemical Behaviour of an Energetic Material and a Heat Release Rate Issue", and he was supervised by Prof Jose Torero and Prof Dougal Drysdale.

Charlotte Roben defended her PhD thesis on the 22nd of Jan 2010. The external examiner was Prof Ian Burgess from University of Sheffield, and the internal was Dr Tim Stratford. The thesis title is "The effect of cooling and non-uniform fires on structural behaviour", and she was supervised by Dr Martin Gillie and Prof Jose Torero.