William L. Grosshandler
Position
Chief
Fire Research Division
Task
Associate Technical Investigator
Education
University of Wisconsin, B.S.,Mechanical Engineering, 1968
University of California, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, 1976
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Dr. William Grosshandler is the Chief of the Fire Research Division in the Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His responsibilities and technical areas of interest include fire dynamics, sensing of fires, mechanisms of fire suppression, fire retarded polymers, and advanced fire service technologies.
Dr. Grosshandler currently is leading the NIST investigation of the The Station nightclub (Warwick, R.I.) fire and is the associate lead investigator of the National Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster. He also manages BFRL's longer term research to reduce the impact of extreme threats to the safety of buildings, their occupants and emergency responders.
Dr. Grosshandler received his PhD. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to his appointment at NIST, he spent three years as the Director of the Thermal Systems Program of NSF. At the same time, he maintained his position as Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University, where he had been since 1976. He has also held visiting appointments at Factory Mutual Research Corporation and the University of Poitiers in France. Dr. Grosshandler has served on the Board of Directors of the Combustion Institute, the editorial advisory board of Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, is active in the Heat Transfer Division and a Fellow of ASME, and is a recipient of the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award. |
