Rasbash Lecture 

Professor Magnusson's Rasbash Lecture was entitled 'Fire Disasters - ‘normal accidents’ waiting to happen?'

Rasbash Lecture delivered by Professor Dougal Drysdale of the Fire Research Group, School of Engineering and Electronics, University of Edinburgh.

'Fire Dynamics as an aid to Fire Investigation' was the theme of the 2005 Rasbash Lecture and Conference, which took place on 1st June 2005. The event was hosted by the Defence Fire Service at the Ministry of Defence Main Building in Whitehall, London.

Conference speakers included Dr Chris Foster, Rodger Ide and Martin Shipp who gave a paper on “The importance of small and large scale fire tests in support of fire investigation”.

Rasbash Lecture 'Issues and opportunities for the future of fire engineering' delivered on 15th June 2006 by David A. Lucht, P.E., FSFPE, Professor and Director Emeritus Center for Firesafety Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Rasbash Lecture 'Fire Modelling…the story so far' was delivered on Tuesday 19th June 2007 by Professor Geoff Cox, Technical Director (retired) of the Fire Research Division of BRE.

Rasbash Lecture 'Integration of Fire Dynamics and Fire Safety Engineering' was delivered on 5th June 2008 by Professor James G Quintiere -The John L. Bryan Professor of Fire Protection Engineering University of Maryland, taking place at Defence Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Andover, Hampshire, UK.

Rasbash Lecture 'A review of fire suppression science and engineering, firepoint theory and beyond.' was delivered on 4thJune 2009 by Dr Craig Beyler of Hughes Associates at Defence Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Andover.

Rasbash Lecture 'Structural Fire Engineering Past, Present & Future' was delivered by Professor Roger Plank BSc PhD CEng MICE FIStructE, University of Sheffield.

The Rasbash Lecture 2010 was held at Swann Lecture Theatre, University of Edinburgh, 7th September 2010.

Rasbash Lecture 'Fire Safety – Sustainable Infrastructure and Communities' was delivered by José L. Torero at the 88th IFE AGM in BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, Cardiff.

The Rasbash Lecture was delivered by Professor José Torero of the University of Edinburgh, who hinted that the profession should not rely too much on fire-retardant chemicals, and instead regain its status as ‘thinking fire engineers’. 

Rasbash Lecture 'Developments in tenability and escape time assessment for Performance-based design.' was delivered by Professor David Purser.

Institution of Fire Engineers 2013 AGM Conference and Exhibition, Stratford-upon-Avon 10th -11th July 2013.

Dr John de Ris (FM Global) gave the 2014 IFE Rasbash Lecture “Radiation and incomplete combustion of buoyant turbulent diffusion flames”, and was presented with the Rasbash Medal by Martin Shipp (IFE Board Director and BRE Global) on behalf of the IFE.

The 2014 IFE Rasbash Lecture was at the sixth FireSeat event, a two day symposium and reunion held on the 15th and 16th May 2014, celebrating 40 years of Fire Safety Engineering at Edinburgh University. This symposium also featured the fourth Philip H. Thomas Lecture delivered by Prof. Colin Bailey, and held at Surgeons' Hall, at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Nicolson Street Edinburgh EH8 9DW. 

Watch Dr. de Ris' Rasbash Lecture

Dr John DeHaan (Fire-Ex Forensics, Inc.) is a world-renown fire investigator whose specialties include investigations of fires or explosions, fire deaths or injuries, incident assessment and reconstruction. He has authored six editions of Kirk’s Fire Investigation since 1982.

Dr DeHaan gave his Rasbash lecture titled ‘Knowledge from fire investigation’ as a keynote presentation at the IFE 2017 International Conference “Learning lessons, sharing knowledge, saving lives, reducing losses”, held at the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Training Centre, Manchester on 11th and 12th July 2017. He was presented the medal by Martin Shipp.

IFE members can watch Dr. Dehaan's lecture 'Knowledge from fire investigation' in our CPD Hub.

On November 8, 2019, Peter Holland presented Professor Albert Simeoni with the prestigious Rasbash Medal by The Institution of Fire Engineers.

On November 8, 2019, Professor Albert Simeoni was awarded the prestigious Rasbash Medal by The Institution of Fire Engineers, one of the world's leading professional organization for those involved in fire engineering, fire prevention and fire suppression. Simeoni, who heads the fire protection engineering department, was given the award for his advanced work in wildfire research.

The medal, one of the highest honours in the field, is named for David Rasbash. Rasbash was a pioneer in the field of fire safety engineering and became the first ever professor of fire safety engineering at the University of Edinburgh.

As part of the honour, Simeoni was invited to deliver the annual Rasbash Lecture at the University of Edinburgh. His talk, “Investigating the physics of wildfires to help build resilience in society” gave an overview of the challenges that our societies face and what can be done to overcome them, with an emphasis on the issue of the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI).

“The Rasbash Lectures are a vital part of the IFE calendar. The lectures and the associated award of the Rasbash medal showcase the outstanding research carried out by key members of the fire community, and give us, as a sector and an Institution, a chance to celebrate them,” said Roy Bishop, CEO of the Institution of Fire Engineers. “Professor Simeoni has provided so much to the fire sector, his research and pioneering attitude includes research on wildland fires, looking at combustion, heat transfer and fire spread modelling. We're delighted to honour Professor Simeoni and all his achievements at this esteemed event.”

Watch Professor Simeoni's Rasbash Lecture

Professor Martin Shipp was presented with the 2025 Rasbash Award by International President (25-26) James Lane. IFE members can watch his lecture 'Participating in history' in our CPD Hub.