The Fire Protection Research Foundation (Foundation), an affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), announced winners of the 2015 William M. Carey and Ronald K. Mengel awards. The award winners were selected by participants at the Foundation’s 2016 Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Symposium (SUPDET). Recipients will receive their awards at the 2017 SUPDET Symposium, September 12th – 14th, in College Park, Maryland.
Christina Francis won the 2016 William M. Carey Award for her outstanding paper entitled, “New Technology for Sprinklered High-Challenge Warehouses.” The awardrecognizes the best suppression presentation, as voted by attendees of SUPDET. Francis of Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) is responsible for the development and management of P&G’s Global Fire Protection Program, including oversight of more than 140 global manufacturing sites and technical centers.
The distinguished honor recognizes the late Carey, who was a senior staff engineer at Underwriters Laboratories Inc. Carey participated in many Foundation fire suppression projects, including the launch of The National Quick Response Sprinkler Project. Throughout his career, Carey was known for being “the bridge” between research and the application of new fire safety knowledge.
Joseph Fleming, deputy fire chief for the Boston Fire Department, and Vytenis Babrauskas, of Fire Science and Technology Inc., won the 2016 Ronald K. Mengel Award for their exceptional paper entitled, “Improving Data Collection of Smoke Alarms in Fires.” The award recognizes the best detection presentation, as declared by SUPDET Symposium participants.
The late Mengel had a long and distinguished career in fire protection, and served for many years as the vice president of industry affairs for the system sensor division of Honeywell Corporation. He was instrumental in Honeywell’s industry-sponsored research and training efforts. Mengel contributed to a number of Foundation projects and served on the Foundation’s Fire Detection and Alarm Research Advisory Council.
About the Fire Protection Research Foundation
The Fire Protection Research Foundation plans, manages, and communicates research on a broad range of fire safety issues in support of the NFPA mission. The Foundation is an affiliate of NFPA.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
Founded in 1896, NFPA is a global, nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. The association delivers information and knowledge through more than 300 consensus codes and standards, research, training, education, outreach and advocacy; and by partnering with others who share an interest in furthering the NFPA mission. For more information visit www.nfpa.org. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed online for free at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
