Steve Gwynne

Steve Gwynne is a British fire safety scientist whose work focuses on human behaviour in emergencies and evacuation modelling. He is professor of Evacuation and Pedestrian Dynamics at the University of Greenwich's Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG).[1][2] He has held research and leadership roles in government and industry, including at the National Research Council Canada and at Movement Strategies (a GHD company).[3][4]

Education

Gwynne completed a PhD at the University of Greenwich in 2000 with a dissertation on representing occupant interaction with smoke for evacuation modelling.[5][6]

Career

Gwynne began his career with the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich, publishing on evacuation modelling and human behaviour in fire.[7] He later worked as a senior and principal research officer at the National Research Council Canada on evacuation and pedestrian dynamics, co-authoring government-backed technical work on human behaviour in fire and wildfire evacuation modelling.[8][9]

In industry, he served as research lead at Movement Strategies, contributing to studies and guidance on evacuation drills, crowd behaviour and wildfire evacuation.[10][11] In 2024–2025 he was listed as an author from the University of Greenwich on an ISCRAM proceedings paper documenting the 2024 Roxborough Park (Colorado) wildfire evacuation drill, a cross-agency exercise studied by researchers and emergency managers.[12][13]

He has also held adjunct or visiting roles, including adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland and an adjunct/visiting appointment at Lund University in Sweden which focused on evacuation and pedestrian dynamics.[3][14][4]

Gwynne's research includes widely cited work on evacuation modelling and human factors in fire. A 2001 study co-authored with Ed Galea and colleagues described modelling occupant interaction with fire conditions using the buildingEXODUS evacuation model.[15] His later publications include a peer-reviewed paper documenting a community wildfire evacuation drill at Roxborough Park, Colorado (2019), published in Fire Technology and indexed by PubMed Central.[16]

His work on wildfire evacuation modelling (including the WUI-NITY platform) appears in government and academic sources, such as National Research Council Canada reports and journal articles on wildland–urban interface (WUI) evacuation.[9][17]

Gwynne and collaborators have also published on the design and assessment of evacuation drills and behavioural assumptions in modelling, topics that have been discussed in practitioner media and professional outlets, including the SFPE's Fire Protection Engineering magazine and interviews/podcasts.[11][18][19][20]

Selected works

Gwynne's publications include:

  • Gwynne, S. et al. (2023). "Roxborough Park Community Wildfire Evacuation Drill: Data Collection and Model Benchmarking." Fire Technology 59(2): 879–901.[21]
  • Gwynne, S.; Galea, E.R.; Lawrence, P.J.; Filippidis, L. (2001). "Modelling occupant interaction with fire conditions using the buildingEXODUS evacuation model." Fire Safety Journal 36(4): 327–357.[15]
  • Wahlqvist, J.; Ronchi, E.; Lovreglio, R.; Nilsson, D.; Gwynne, S. (2021). "The simulation of wildland–urban interface fire evacuation: the WUI-NITY platform." Safety Science 136: 105130.[17]
  • Hunt, A.L.E.; Galea, E.R.; Lawrence, P.J.; Frost, I.R.; Gwynne, S.M.V. (2020). "Simulating movement devices used in hospital evacuation." Fire Technology 56(5): 2209–2240.[22]

References

  1. ^ "FSEG team". University of Greenwich. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  2. ^ Mitchell, Steve (2025-10-13). "Ashland's first wildfire drill gives residents a taste of how emergency evacuation could go". Ashland News - Community-Supported, NonProfit News. Retrieved 2025-10-22.
  3. ^ a b "Gwynne, Steve". University of Maryland. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  4. ^ a b "Steve Gwynne". Lund University. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  5. ^ "Steve Gwynne (PhD thesis, vol. 1)" (PDF). Greenwich Academic Literature Archive. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  6. ^ "Steve Gwynne (PhD thesis, vol. 2)" (PDF). Greenwich Academic Literature Archive. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  7. ^ "Items where Greenwich Author is "Gwynne, Steve"". Greenwich Academic Literature Archive. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  8. ^ "Human behaviour in fire: model development and application". National Research Council Canada. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  9. ^ a b "The simulation of wildland-urban interface fire evacuation: the WUI-NITY platform". National Research Council Canada. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  10. ^ "Understanding and modelling evacuation from fire with Professor Steve Gwynne". IDA (Danish Society of Engineers). Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  11. ^ a b Gwynne, Steve; Amos, Martyn; Kinateder, Max; Bénichou, Noureddine; Boyce, Karen; Natalie Van Der Wal, C.; Ronchi, Enrico (2020). "The future of evacuation drills: Assessing and enhancing evacuee performance". Safety Science. 129 104767. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104767. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  12. ^ Kinateder, Max; Bénichou, Noureddine; Dugstad, Ann-Kristin; Gwynne, Steve; Berthiaume, Maxine; Ronchi, Enrico; Geoerg, Paul; Alexander, Michael; Byrne, Robert Michael; Kimball, Amanda (6 May 2025). "The 2024 Roxborough Park Wildfire Evacuation Drill". Proceedings of the 22nd ISCRAM Conference. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  13. ^ "The 2024 Roxborough Park Wildfire Evacuation Drill (author manuscript)" (PDF). Greenwich Academic Literature Archive. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  14. ^ "Cover, ToC, Fire Safety Science News No.45" (PDF). International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS). 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  15. ^ a b Gwynne, S; Galea, E. R; Lawrence, P. J; Filippidis, L (2001-06-01). "Modelling occupant interaction with fire conditions using the buildingEXODUS evacuation model". Fire Safety Journal. 36 (4): 327–357. Bibcode:2001FirSJ..36..327G. doi:10.1016/S0379-7112(00)00060-6. ISSN 0379-7112.
  16. ^ Gwynne, Steve M. V.; Ronchi, Enrico; Wahlqvist, Jonathan; Cuesta, Arturo; Gonzalez Villa, Javier; Kuligowski, Erica D.; Kimball, Amanda; Rein, Guillermo; Kinateder, Max; Benichou, Noureddine; Xie, Hui (2023-03-01). "Roxborough Park Community Wildfire Evacuation Drill: Data Collection and Model Benchmarking". Fire Technology. 59 (2): 879–901. doi:10.1007/s10694-023-01371-1. PMC 9977886. PMID 36873577.
  17. ^ a b Wahlqvist, J.; Ronchi, E.; Lovreglio, R.; Nilsson, D.; Gwynne, S. (2021). "The simulation of wildland–urban interface fire evacuation: the WUI-NITY platform". Safety Science. 136 105130. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105130.
  18. ^ "A Vision for WUI Fire Engineering". Fire Protection Engineering (SFPE). 2023. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  19. ^ "084 – Industry lead research with Steve Gwynne and Mike Spearpoint". Fire Science Show podcast. 2022-12-21. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  20. ^ "A Tale Of Three Fires – Comparing Recent Wildfire Evacuations (EPIC Podcast)". Emergency Preparedness in Canada (EPIC). 2024-05-10. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  21. ^ Gwynne, Steve M. V.; Ronchi, Enrico; Wahlqvist, Jonathan; Cuesta, Arturo; Gonzalez Villa, Javier; Kuligowski, Erica D.; Kimball, Amanda; Rein, Guillermo; Kinateder, Max; Benichou, Noureddine; Xie, Hui (2023-03-01). "Roxborough Park Community Wildfire Evacuation Drill: Data Collection and Model Benchmarking". Fire Technology. 59 (2): 879–901. doi:10.1007/s10694-023-01371-1. PMC 9977886. PMID 36873577.
  22. ^ Hunt, Aoife L. E.; Galea, Edwin R.; Lawrence, Peter J.; Frost, Ian R.; Gwynne, Steven M. V. (2020). "Simulating movement devices used in hospital evacuation". Fire Technology. 56 (5): 2209–2240. doi:10.1007/s10694-020-00971-5. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.