Scientific Review Board

Björn Sundström, Chair, SP, Sweden

Professor Björn Sundström is head of the Department of Fire Technology at SP. The department has about 70 employees and will grow to about 80 employees in the next few  years, largely due to increased R&D. Björn Sundström is also Professor in fire technology at the Luleå University of Technology.

Dr Sundström has been project leader for a number of large international projects for example for the European Union, for industrial groups, proposals for European Union legislation regarding the construction products directive. He received the Interflam award, the spoon, 1996 for the technical leadership of the EU project, CBUF, Combustion Behaviour of Upholstered Furniture.

Dr Sundström is currently chairman of ISO TC 92- Fire Safety, appointed expert by the European Commission in the EGF group for the CPD, representing SP in the European Commission Fire sector group for notified bodies and he has various other commitments relating to European fire research, regulations and international standardisation.

Kathleen H. Almand, P.E., FPRF, USA

Kathleen Almand is the Executive Director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation, an affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association.   She holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada and is a registered professional engineer in the State of Maryland and a Fellow of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.  Prior to joining FPRF in 2004, Kathleen was the Executive Director of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers and held research and management positions with the Civil Engineering Research Foundation, the American Iron and Steel Institute, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Petra Andersson, SP, Sweden

Petra Andersson has worked with fire research for more than 20 years. She obtained her PhD in Fire Safety engineering at Lund University in 1997 and has since then worked at SP Fire technology with various research topics such as fire detection, functional performance during fires, extinguishment and environmental effects. Her research includes both simulations and experiments. Lately her research has been more focused on Electric and Hybrid vehicles.

Michael Försth, SP, Sweden

Michael Försth gained his MSc degree (1995) at Uppsala University, Sweden, in Engineering Physics. He received his PhD (2001) in Physics at Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dr. Försth is a senior research scientist at SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Fire Technology Department. Dr. Försth is an expert on bus fire safety and has been in charge of projects on fire regulations and standardization. He has presented several documents at the GRSG (The Working Party on General Safety provisions) meeting at UN ECE, (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) in Geneva.

Margaret McNamee, SP, Sweden

Margaret Simonson has worked in the field of fire and combustion research for more than 20 years. She obtained her PhD in Combustion chemistry from the Chalmers University of Technology 1995 before beginning work in Fire Technology. Her main field of interest has been the environmental effect of fires, in particular the development of models for the environmental assessment of products incorporating fire performance as an important parameter. She has more than 40 international publications, co-authored 20 SP Reports and four book chapters.