Prof. José Torero

• From: Lima, Peru
• Qualifications:
  • PhD. University of California at Berkeley, USA (1992)
  • MSc. University of California at Berkeley, USA (1991)
  • MEng. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (1989)
• Current Positions:
  • BRE/RAE Chair in Fire Safety Engineering
  • Head of the Institute for Infrastructure and Environment
  • Director of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering
• Previous position: 2001 - Associate Professor, Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland, USA, and Charge de Recherche at the National Centre for Scientific Research, France.

Profile:

His research work is in fire dynamics, flame spread, microgravity research, smouldering combustion, smoke detection, structures and fire, suppression systems, contaminated land and education in fire safety engineering. José has conducted work on prescriptive and performance based design, forensic fire investigation and product development, conducted detailed structural response to fire, fire resistance evaluation, material selection, life safety analysis, smoke evacuation, detection and alarm design as well as standard and advanced fire suppression systems.

José was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and awarded the Arthur B. Guise Medal by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (USA) in 2008, both in recognition of eminent achievement in advancing the Science of Fire Protection. He is Chair of the Fire & Safety Working Group at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) and Vice Chair of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS).

He has participated in landmark projects like the NASA Space Shuttle Hangars in Florida, the 80 storey Heron Tower in London, the Clyde and Dartford Tunnel fire safety design, the investigations of the WTC 1, 2 and 7 collapses, the Madrid Windsor Tower Fire, the Texas City and Buncefield Explosions as well as the Ycua Bolanos supermarket fire.

Editorial board of Fire Safety Journal, Fire Technology, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, Combusiton Science and Technology. He is a Chartered engineer, and a member of the AIAA Micro-gravity and Space Processes Technical Committee, the ASME Fire and Combustion (K-11) Committee, the UL Foams Fire Suppression Systems committee NASA’s Mars or Bust and Fire Safety committees.

He has received numerous honours such as The European Space Agency Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (1993), NASA-Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to Space Shuttle Mission (1995), Lilly-Center for Teaching Excellence (1996), E. Robert Kent Outstanding Teaching Award (1999), Faculty Achievement Award, Office of the President (2000) and Faculty Service Award (2001) from the University of Maryland, the William M. Carey Award for the Best Paper Presented at the Fire Suppression and Detection Symposium, (2001), Harry C. Bigglestone Award for the Best Paper Published in Fire Technology (2002), honorary membership to the Salamander Fire Protection Engineering Society, 2007 Bodycote Warrington Fire Research Prize for the best Fire Safety Engineering paper and the FM Global Award for the best paper at the 5th International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards 2007.

Publications

• José has authored 20 book chapters and more than 300 technical publications in a broad array of subjects associated to fire safety engineering.

Search for publications by Jose Torero on the Edinburgh Research Archive.