Since July, the position as chair of the IWMA Scientific Council is - after the retirement of Prof. Hong-Zeng Yu - vacant. The new chair of the IWMA Scientific Council will be elected during the annual IWMA member meeting which will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 10th October 2023.
Two IWMA members have now come forward to apply for this position:
Kemal Sarp Arsava (RISE Norway) and Max Lakkonen (IFAB).
Kemal Sarp Arsava received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Atilim University (Turkey) in 2008. After obtaining his M.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2010, he went to the U.S. to pursue his Ph.D. at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
In 2014, he received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and has worked as a post-Doctorate associate and a research engineer in Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) at WPI for three years focusing on experimental investigation of oil spill response technologies, pool fires and hazardous waste combustion.
Kemal joined the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in 2017. As a researcher, he worked on solving interdisciplinary, strategically important problems
(fire and combustion related) for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense.
Kemal has been working for RISE Fire Research since 2021 as a senior research scientist. He works on the façade, electrical vehicle, tunnel und forest fires. He is the project coordinator of a HORIZON2020 project (TREEADS), focusing on wildfires.
He has been a member of IWMA since 2021 and was accepted as a member of the IWMA scientific council in early 2022.
Max Lakkonen obtained his M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland, in 2000. He continued on an academic journey as a researcher and a post-graduate student, specializing in high-pressure water hydraulics. In 2004, Max attained a Licenciate of Technology post-graduate degree from the Department of Automation at TUT.
Transitioning from academia, he ventured into the realm of water hydraulic engineering office before moving to FOGTEC Fire Protection in 2005 (Cologne, Germany). At FOGTEC, Max was the head of the design and R&D departments. In 2015, Max changed to IFAB – Institute for Applied Fire Safety Research, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Presently, he holds the position of Managing Director at the IFAB.
Max's engagement with the IWMA dates back to 2005, when he gave his first presentation at the International Water Mist Conference in Berlin. Since 2009, he has served as an IWMA representative in the NFPA 750 technical committee. Max's contributions extend further to his involvement in the NFPA 130 and NFPA 502 technical committees, along with his participation in the steering board of ITA-COSUF.
Notably, Max has been a member of the IWMA Scientific Council for over ten years and maintains active membership in various associations in both Germany and Finland.