news from BRE
published: 22/12/2011
BRE Centre of Excellence Student Claims Top Prize
A BRE Trust funded PhD student has been awarded the Lloyd's Science of Risk prize in the category of Biological/Technological risk at a presentation in London.
Dr Angus Law and co-authors J Stern-Gottfiried, M Gillie and G Rein scooped the prize for the paper on the influence of travelling fires on a concrete frame. The Science of Risk Prize was launched by Lloyd's to stimulate cutting edge research into the latest emerging risks facing businesses.
Dr Law's paper, which has been published in Engineering Structures 33, argues that the trend towards open plan offices has changed the types of fire likely to occur in modern buildings and develops a new approach for designing large buildings to resist fire.
The paper aims to advance the understanding of how large fires can realistically be represented and how they can be applied to the design process. It also fuses the disciplines of structural engineering and fire engineering to give a unique insight into how real fires may affect real buildings.
Dr Sung-han Koo, another BRE Trust funded PhD student, received a runner-up prize in the same category for his paper "Sensor-steered fire simulation" which was co-authored by Dr J Fraser-Mitchell and Dr S Welch and published in Fire Safety Journal.
Both winners graduated from the University of Edinburgh, which has been an important institution in the field of fire safety for over 30 years. The University also houses the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering.
The BRE Trust currently offers support for a number of PhD students in order to advance knowledge, innovation and communication in all matters concerning the built environment. The Trust research programme takes profits made by the companies owned by the BRE Trust - BRE, BRE Global and BRE Ventures - and gift aid it to the Trust to help fund its research and educational programmes.
-ENDS-
Press Enquiries: Matt Clifford cliffordm@bre.co.uk
Notes for Editors
The BRE Trust
The BRE Trust is a charitable company whose objectives are, through research and education, to advance knowledge, innovation and communication in all matters concerning the built environment for public benefit. www.bretrust.org.uk
The Trust owns the BRE Group Ltd. In operational terms, the BRE Trust and the BRE Group are two sides of a single coin, with one side being the commercial operations, i.e. the BRE Group, and the other the charitable operations - the BRE Trust. Profits made by BRE Group companies are passed to the Trust and used by it to promote its charitable objectives.
Details of all the latest BRE Trust publications can be found at www.brebookshop.com - or for NHBC www.NHBCFoundation.org
BRE Trust: a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales (no. 3282856) and registered as a charity in England (no. 1092193) and in Scotland (no. SC039320).
Some BRE trust statistics:
• Since 2001 BRE Trust has provided £1.8m support to over 60 PhD students
• BRE Trust/BRE Group funding of more than £1m has been provided to BRE University Chairs
• BRE Trust has supported over 180 projects since 2000 with funding in excess of £8m
• In less than two years BRE Trust has commissioned over 100 publications
• Leverage on BRE Trust funding internally has improved its value by over 120% and through Universities by over 600%.
The BRE University Centres of Excellence
The BRE Trust provides financial support to five Chairs at the BRE Centres of Excellence at:
• Edinburgh University - Fire Safety Engineering
• Strathclyde University - Energy Utilisation Research
• University of Bath - Innovatory Construction Materials
• Cardiff University - Welsh School of Architecture (Sustainable Building Design)
• Cardiff University - School of Engineering (Centre for Sustainable Engineering)
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