Scientific Program
Awards
The Howard W. Emmons Invited Plenary Lectureship
The Howard W. Emmons Invited Plenary Lectureship is a prestigious recognition of life-long contributions to and career achievements in fire science and engineering. The Emmons Lectureship is presented for distinguished lifetime achievement in Fire Safety Science.
Nominations are sought from IAFSS members and the recipient of the Award is selected by the Symposium Awards Committee.
2026 IAFSS Symposium Award Committee is happy to inform that Prof Bart MERCI from Gent University was successfully selected as the winner for next Emmons lectureship.
The 2026 Howard Emmons Invited Plenary Lectureship
The 2026 Howard Emmons Invited Plenary Lectureship at the 15th IAFSS Symposium in La Rochelle, France will be delivered by Professor Bart Merci of the Gent University (Belgium). The Emmons Lectureship is a prestigious recognition of distinguished career achievement in fire science and engineering awarded by the IAFSS once every three years at its International Symposia on Fire Safety Science.
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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Awards
The IAFSS Early Career Awards subcommittee has selected the 2 winners of the EC awards
Proulx Award
Assistant Professor Felix Wiesner,
The University of British Columbia, Canada
Dr Felix Wiesner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Wood Science, Faculty of Forestry, at the University of British Columbia, where he contributes fire safety engineering expertise as part of the Sustainable Timber-Built Environment cluster. He is also currently an Honorary Fellow in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland.
Dr Wiesner obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh, before joining the University of Queensland as a Lecturer in Timber Engineering within the National Centre for Timber Durability and Design Life. His primary area of expertise is the fire safety of engineered mass timber products, particularly with regard to their load-bearing capacity and their interaction with compartment fire dynamics. He has extensive experience in large-scale compartment fire tests, as well as in bespoke laboratory-scale experiments involving timber products. His research interests also include the role of fire safety in the durability and service life of exterior wooden infrastructure. This work has provided him with a broad understanding of wood species and treatment options in the context of fire safety.
Dr Wiesner has been actively involved with IAFSS for several years. In 2021, he was one of the recipients of the Sheldon Tieszen Student Award. He currently serves on the IAFSS Membership Advisory Council and as honorary auditor. In addition to his contributions to IAFSS, he is a member of several fire safety technical committees and is a frequent expert contributor to both local and national media.
Magnusson Award
Associate Professor Negar Elhami-Khorasani
University at Buffalo, US
Negar Elhami-Khorasani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at the University at Buffalo. Her primary areas of research are structural fire engineering, performance-based design of structures at high temperatures, resilience of communities under extreme hazards, including wildfires, and characterization of multi-hazard events and their effects on structures and communities.
Elhami-Khorasani was the co-chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Fire Protection Committee and is currently the co-chair of the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY)’s Resilience Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Applied Technology Council, which is an internationally recognized organization dedicated to advancing engineering applications to improve societal resistance to extreme natural hazards.
She is an associate editor of Fire Technology and serves on the editorial board of Reliability Engineering and System Safety. She has been recognized with the American Institute of Steel Construction Early Career Faculty Award and the Fire Protection Research Foundation Medal for her contributions to advancing knowledge and practice in the field.
Awards
The 2026 Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal
The 2026 Kunio Kawagoe Gold Medal at the 15th IAFSS Symposium in La Rochelle, France will be awarded to Dr. Brian Meacham of Crux Consulting, USA.
This distinguished honor recognizes Dr. Meacham’s lifelong contributions and outstanding career achievements in the field of fire science and engineering. His pioneering work has significantly shaped the development and global adoption of performance-based fire safety design, particularly through the integration of risk-informed approaches.
Dr. Meacham has played a vital role in advancing fire safety regulations, and has been a dedicated educator, mentor, and supervisor to students in the field. His leadership extends to active participation in international standards and professional organizations, including ISO TC92, SFPE, and IAFSS, where he has helped influence the direction of fire safety science and practice worldwide.
The IAFSS congratulates Dr. Meacham on this well-deserved recognition of his enduring impact on the discipline.
Exhibition
Showcase your company at IAFSS 2026. You are a startup, a SME, a large corporation... You want to exhibit new products, new technologies, new researches...
Call for papers
The call for papers will be open soon. Manuscripts must be original work and must not have been submitted to another forum.
Agenda
September 24, 2025 : Submission deadline for full papers — November 14, 2025 : Reviews and requests for rebuttal are sent to authors. See more : click on the link below
