On 1st July, Bert Yu (FM Global) retired. He has left one gap at FM Global and one at the International Water Mist Association. Bert has for many years been the chairman of the IWMA Scientific Council. He was elected in 2007 after Dr. Jukka Vaari (VTT) stepped down for this position.
At the annual water mist conferences, he gave presentations on a regular basis. Here are some:
"Wind Turbine Nacelle Enclosure Protection with Water Mist" (2022 in Madrid)
"Water Mist Extinguishment of Exhaust Duct Fires" (2021 in Warsaw)
"Ceiling Height Limits for effective Water Mist Protection of FM Global HC-2 and HC-3 Fire Hazards in Open Environment" (2018 in London)
"Factors affecting Efficiency of Water Mist Suppression of Solid Combustible Fires in open Space" (2016 in Vienna)
The IWMA Board of Directors wishes to thank Prof. Hong-Zeng (Bert) Yu for his services!
At the same time the IWMA Board of Directors would like to ask for applications to fill the gap. The new chairperson of the IWMA Scientific Council will be elected during the annual IWMA member meeting on 10th October 2023!
Before Prof. Hong-Zeng Yu retired we asked him a few questions:
- When were you elected chairman of the IWMA Scientific Council? I was elected in 2007, succeeding the former Council chair, Dr. Jukka Varri of VTT.
- What was it like to be in that position? Can you tell us something about your tasks and possibly about special moments? The function of the Scientific Council chair is to coordinate Council members to assist the Association on taking care of engineering and scientific inquiries from the general public, and promoting and advancing water mist fire protection applications. Worth mentioning is that, before IMO accepting that water mist systems are permitted to protect twice the tested machinery enclosure size, the Council worked with the late and former Association president, Mr. Ragnar Wighus, to prepare the scientific justification and present it to IMO for acceptance. The IMO acceptance expands water mist systems’ protection envelop without the requirement of additional fire testing, which greatly reduces the system cost. The Council has also been charged with the development of water mist Q&A for the Association website, the review of annual Water Mist Conference submissions, and the selection of young talent awards, to name a few. I am fortunate that I have been working with a group of high caliber Council colleagues during the years.
- What are your plans for the future? So far I don’t have a grand to-do list after one month of retirement. But the retirement does give me more time to play classical guitar compositions by Fernando Sor, Francisco Tarrega and others. I have signed up to the local YMCA to start an exercise routine. My wife and I are also planning trips for next year. Believe it or not, I still keep track of new fire and water mist publications. So I would love to continue making technical contributions to the Association after stepping down as the Council chair.