Stephen Welch: Senior Lecturer, BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, The University of Edinburgh
Stephen has a PhD in combustion (diesel engine soot emission prediction) and over 20 years of experience in fire research and teaching. He worked for a decade at BRE's Fire Research Station, including full-scale fire tests at BRE Cardington, before joining the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 2004. His main research interests have been in the development and validation of computer modelling methods for fire-related problems in building and transport applications, spanning fluid dynamics, combustion, toxic species, smoke, heat transfer and human behaviour. His current research includes generalised methods for structural fire safety engineering encompassing "travelling fires" in OpenSees (RFCS TRAFIR project), dynamics and simulation of travelling and post-flashover fires using High Performance Computing (EPSRC UKCTRF/Real Fires for Safe Design of Tall Buildings) and real-time emergency management techniques exploiting sensor-linked model for fire and egress (FireGrid).
Stephen's teaching is related to fire safety engineering practice, providing a training in engineering approaches to applied problems, with critique and analysis of relevant regulations, codes and design principles. He is Programme Director for the one-year MSc Structural and Fire Safety Engineering (SAFE), now in its tenth year (50+ graduates), and a management board member for the International Master in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE), now in its eighth year (100+ graduates). He was the Discipline Programme Manager for Civil & Environmental Engineering 1/1/14-30/4/18.
Specialities: Fire safety engineering, fire modelling, sensor-linked fire models, toxic species, soot, flame spread, thermal analysis, codes and standards.