Professor Bart Merci’s research interests have been broad and recognized for their innovation and significance. His research interests are CFD simulations of diffusion flames and compartment fires (e.g. in nuclear facilities, tunnels and atria) including smoke dynamics, flame spread and pyrolysis, and fire suppression. using water droplets. He has published 505 papers registered in Google Scholar which has attracted more than 6600 citations to date, and an h-index of 43. He has also contributed to 2 books, and 4 book chapters. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of Fire Safety Journal, the field’s leading journals and the official peer review publication of IAFSS. Under his stewardship since 2016, the journal has regained prominence, greatly increased citations, and regularly attracts very high-quality submissions. Also Professor Bart Merci is the co-creator and academic leader of the International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE), which he developed within the EU Erasmus+ framework. Over its 13-year history, IMFSE has produced 217 graduates from 78 nationalities, and currently enrolls more than 50 students across its two years of study. The programme has benefited from collaboration with 11 universities and 17 contributing companies. With this, Professor Bart Merci was recognised in 2018 with the SFPE Lucht Lamp of Knowledge Award. He have also been recognised by the SFPE Foundation, which awarded him the 2023 Arthur B. Guise Medal, and by The International FORUM of Fire Research Directors, which presented him with the 2022 Mid-Career Researcher Award.

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Brian is Director of Risk & Regulatory Consulting at Crux Consulting, Boston, MA and Adjunct Professor in Fire Safety Engineering at Lund University, Sweden. Over his 40 year professional career, he has held positions in engineering consulting and academia, helping to bring more science into practice, and practice into engineering education.

Throughout his career, Brian has explored three primary topics:

• performance-based design for fire,
• fire risk analysis,
• performance-based building regulatory systems.

His research, teaching and practice has often reflected issues at the intersection of these areas. His focus in recent years has been on sustainable and fire resilient built environments, and sociotechnical systems and systems thinking approaches to fire safety and building regulation.He has authored or co-authored more than 300 papers, books, handbook chapters, research reports and other publications, supervised numerous PhD and MS students, and mentored many engineers and researchers.

Brian has served as Managing Principal at his own firm, Meacham Associates, Principal at the international design firm Arup, Associate Professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Technical Director and Research Director of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.

He has also served in many industry leadership roles, including currently as Immediate Past Chair and Trustee of the International Association for Fire Safety Science, Member of the Research Advisory Board of the UL Fire Safety Research Institute, Chair of the Code Development Committee for the ICC Performance Code, and Vice Chair of the IFSS Coalition Committee for a Decade of Action for Fire Safety.He is also a Past President of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, a Past Chair of the NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Risk Assessment Methods, a past Chair of the US Technical Advisory Group to ISO TC92 SC4 Fire Safety Engineering, and a past Chair of the Inter-jurisdictional Regulatory Collaboration Committee. Brian holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering, an MSc in Fire Protection Engineering, and PhD in Risk & Public Policy.He is a licensed Professional Engineer in Connecticut and Massachusetts (US), a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers (UK), a registered European Engineer (EUR ING), a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, a Fulbright Global Scholar, and a Fulbright Specialist.Brian has been recognized with the SFPE European Fire Safety Engineering Award (2023), the ICC Global Award (2017), and the SFPE Harold E. Nelson Service Award (2016).