INTRODUCTION AND INVITATION

The Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (USA), is preparing to host the 10th International Symposium of the International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). The IAFSS Symposium will be held on campus on June 19 – 24, 2011. The University of Maryland is located in the Washington DC area and benefits from convenient air travel access. The campus is close to many tourist attractions and places of interest, in Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis.

The Symposium is the premier fire safety science meeting in the world and has been organized triennially since 1985 by the IAFSS. The program will include fully peer-reviewed papers over the five days of the symposium, including invited lectures from the world's top fire science researchers. Symposium activities will begin on Sunday, 19 June with several workshops in the afternoon and a Welcome Reception Sunday evening. Poster sessions will provide an excellent opportunity to interact individually with researchers about their most recent work. Students are encouraged to participate and awards will be made for the Best Student Posters. In addition to the technical sessions, numerous social activities are planned, which will provide opportunities to informally meet with colleagues and friends. There will be a rich array of activities available in the companion program and there is much to see in the Washington DC region.

Research of Interest
The International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) sponsors the world’s premier symposium for the dissemination and discussion of peer reviewed scientific research focused on the prevention and mitigation of fire losses. You are invited to submit a contribution that advances scientific understanding and presents or advances new ideas on any topic in the entire spectrum of fire safety science. See the list of topics below. Papers and poster abstracts will be accepted on the basis of their quality and originality in the science of fire safety and its applications. Routine applications of established knowledge and case studies with no generalized results are not appropriate for the symposium. Refer to prior symposium proceedings for further information on the scope of contributed papers at http://iafss.haifire.com

All accepted and presented papers will be included in the symposium proceeding, Fire Safety Science, and will be electronically published by IAFSS (http://iafss.haifire.com). All papers will have DOI’s assigned and will be part of the CrossRef system, including citation indexing. This assures the best possible dissemination of the contributions and assures that citations of the papers will be fully recognized.

Requirements

• Papers: Must be original work. The same paper must not have been submitted to another forum.
• Oral Presentation: Oral presentation of the paper at the Symposium must be made by an author
• Style: All papers must be in English. Detailed information for authors on style, including paper length, format, etc, and a paper template are available at the

Symposium author web page http://www.haifire.com/iafss/index.htm

Symposium Topics:

• Structural Fire Performance
• Compartment Fires
• Suppression
• Ignition and Flame Spread
• Flames and Fire Dynamics
• Toxic Hazards
• Fire Chemistry
• Material Burning
• Measurement and Test Methods
• Detection
• Evacuation and Human Behavior
• Statistics, Probability, and Risk Analysis
• Smoke Control
• Special Applications (explosions, industrial fires, post-earthquake fires, standards, safety codes, fire safety management, fire investigation and reconstruction, fire service needs, wildfires)

Submitting Your Full Paper
Manuscripts should be submitted electronically, beginning 1 September 2010 through a button at the Symposium author web page located on this website.

The submission deadline for papers is 30 September 2010.

Papers submitted after 7 October 2010 will not be considered. Papers submitted between 30 September and 7 October will be reviewed, however, timely submissions will be given preference in determining acceptance.

Submitting Your Poster Abstract
A Call for Posters will be issued in May 2010, which will provide details on poster abstract requirements. Posters may describe work in progress, or completed projects. To assure the inclusion of recent research, the submission deadline for poster abstracts is 22 February 2011. Poster abstracts will be reviewed by the Program Committee.

Review Process
Papers will receive at least two independent peer reviews of the full paper. Reviewers will be allocated by members of the Program Committee. Final acceptance or rejection of a manuscript will be made by the 10th Symposium Program Committee.
Authors will be notified of the Program Committee’s decision by 15 January 2011. Notification will include reviewers’ comments, detailed style guidelines for the final version of the paper for publication, and the deadline for delivering a final version in which all reviewers’ comments have been addressed. The proceedings will include all accepted papers that are presented by an author at the symposium provided that reviewer comments are addressed and the final versions are approved by the Program Committee Chair by the deadline (15 February 2011), and the final photoready paper is submitted to the Proceedings Editor by 15 March 2011.

10th IAFSS Symposium Timeline
Full Papers
30 September 2010 – Submission Deadline for Full Papers
15 January 2011 – Letter to Authors Announcing Paper Acceptance/Declination
15 February 2011 – Deadline for Technical Approval of the Final Manuscript by Program Committee
15 March 2011- Final Submission Deadline for Photoready Copy

Posters
Late May 2010 – Call for Poster Abstracts
22 February 2011 – Submission Deadline for Poster Abstracts
22 March 2011- Poster Acceptance/Declination
May 2011- Poster submission for web posting

Symposium
May 2011- web publication of all papers and posters
19 to 24 June 2011 – 10th IAFSS Symposium

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