View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Available online at www.sciencedirect.com P r o c e d i a E n g i n e e r i n g 5 2 ( 2 0 1 3 ) 1 – 2 Development of Fire Science and Fire Protection Engineering in China YAO Hao-weia,b,* aSchool of Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China bGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fire Science and Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China Abstract This article gives an introduction on the development of fire science and fire protection engineering in China, and a brief on the conference. © 20132012 The Authors.Authors. PublishedPublished by by Elsevier Elsevier Ltd. Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of School of Engineering of Sun Yat-sen University Keywords: fire science; fire protection engineering; development; China Let’s review the mega-events of China fire science and fire protection engineering: In 1956, Fire Department of Ministry of Public Security (FDMPS) was established. In 1959, Fire Science Research Laboratory of FDMPS was established. In 1963, Fire Science Research Institute of FDMPS was established. In 1965, the four Fire Science Research Institutes of Ministry of Public Security were established, namely, Sichuan, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Shenyang. In 1980, China Fire Press was established. The journal “China Fire” started publication in 1980. “Fire Science and Technology” started publication in 1982. And “Fire Technology and Product Information” started publication in 1988. In 1984, China Fire Protection Association was founded. In 1988, National Technical Committee on Fire Protection of Standardization Administration of China was established. Up to now there are 14 sub-committees, having formulated a number of National Standards on fire protection. In 1992, the State Key Laboratory of Fire Science of University of Science and Technology of China was founded. In the same year, the journal “Fire Safety Science” started publication. In 1993, the National Standard “Classification and code of disciplines” was promulgated. Fire engineering was classified as third grade discipline. (Its attributive first grade discipline is security science and technology and second grade discipline is security engineering.) In 2004, Center for Public Safety Research of Tsinghua University was set up. (Renamed as Public Safety Institute in 2010) In 2011, Security Science and Engineering was approved to be added as first grade discipline in postgraduate education. Fire Science and Fire Protection Engineering is going to be its subordinative second grade discipline. Thanks to the research foundation created by the predecessors’ work, nowadays, there are plenty of colleges and universities with education and research on fire science and fire protection engineering, including University of Science and Technology of China, China University of Mining and Technology, The Chinese People's Armed Police Forces Academy, Central South University, Sun Yat-sen University, Northeastern University, Wuhan University, Chongqing University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, City University of Hong Kong, University of Macau, and National Sun Yat-sen University of Taiwan, etc. 1877-7058 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of School of Engineering of Sun Yat-sen University doi: 10.1016/j.proeng.2013.02.096 2 Yao Hao-wei / Procedia Engineering 52 ( 2013 ) 1 – 2 In the 2012 International Conference on Performance-based Fire and Fire Protection Engineering, more than 100 experts from U.K., Australia, China Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have attended the conference. Professor Wanki Chow from Hong Kong Polytechnic University was specially invited to give a presentation titled “Several Point to Note on Implementing Performance-based Design in Hong Kong”. During the conference, a spirited discussion has sprung up among the participants on topics such as fire mechanism test, fire detection, alarm and distinguishing system, Evacuation Modeling and software application, public security and emergency management, etc., which reflects the research development and trend of fire science and engineering field. After the conference, the participants visited the Guangdong Fire Special Operation Corps, where they saw the newest fire protection equipment of Guangdong for rescue services, and communicated on the internationalization trend of fire services. Hereon, on behalf of the organizing committee of the conference, I wish to extend my hearty thanks to all the experts that have attended the conference. Their active participation has contributed to the success of this conference happened all these years. Meanwhile, I am grateful to the press of Elsevier for its support to the conference. Dr. Haowei Yao Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou, December 2012 .