MSU Ignites Research in Structural Fire Engineering

MSU Ignites Research in Structural Fire Engineering by Laura Luptowski Seeley

Fire claims 4,000 lives and injures about 100,000 individuals in the U.S. each year and accounts for more than $50 billion in total losses. Yet, structural fire safety has been one of the least developed research areas in the United States — that is, until now. MSU’s College of Engineering has set out to change all that.

“The collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11 brought international attention to the field of structural fire engineering,” says Ronald Harichandran, chairperson of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “And our department has positioned itself to be a leader in this area that is so critical to homeland security and economic activity.”

To that end, the college dedicated its new Structural Fire Testing Facility on June 12, the first such facility in a U.S. university setting. “This is a significant day for Michigan State University,” said Ian Gray, MSU’s vice president for research and graduate studies. “We are introducing another arsenal to our research activities as we move the university forward in terms of research prominence. This world-class facility will be a beacon to bring faculty from other institutions and government agencies to work collectively with our faculty here at MSU."

For the full article, please see page 31 of the Fall 2007 Research Currents Magazine.