James R. Lawson
Position
General Physical Scientist
Fire Fighting Technology Group
Fire Research Division
Task
Fire Service Technologies and Guidelines
Education
Brewton-Parker College, A.A., Business Administration
Georgia Southern University, B.S., Industrial Education
Montgomery College, A.A., Computer Science, Science and Mathematics
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For six years, Mr. Lawson managed law enforcement and security police personnel in a reserve of the United States Air Force. In 1969, he joined National Gypsum Company as a manufacturing Process Engineer. In 1974, he became a corporate Research Engineer and was selected by the Gypsum Association as the industry representative to the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and became a Research Associate in the Center for Fire Research.
In 1977, Mr. Lawson joined the National Bureau of Standards and was the project leader or worked as a team member on a wide range of studies: development of the furniture calorimeter; fire resistance of thermal insulation materials; fire tests for flooring, smoke generation, flame spread, heat of combustion and heat release rate; suppression of gas well blow out fires; sprinkler water droplet characterization and activation of sprinkler systems. He has worked with industry and testing laboratories while managing several fire test related inter-laboratory studies, including the cigarette ignition propensity study.
Mr. Lawson was the project leader for large scale fire performance evaluations of new structural designs for Veterans Administration hospitals and Department of Defense hospitals that employ an interstitial space between patient floors. He also studied the physical response of high-strength concrete materials exposed to thermal environments that may be produced by fires. He worked with the U.S. Navy on predictions of fire growth on combat ships and co-authored a paper on calculator estimates of fire growth. Working with the U.S. Navy and others, he assisted with the evaluation of materials used in high temperature arson. Studies by Lawson on in-situ burning of large oil spills resulted in the development of a unique means for measuring smoke yield. Mr. Lawson has worked with numerous fire departments, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, (ATF), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and police departments on studies of fire behavior and arson cases. His work with fire departments includes many studies associated with serious fire fighter injuries and fatalities on the fireground.
Lawson’s work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency developed standards for protective clothing and equipment for FEMA emergency managers and investigators. His work with the U.S. Fire Administration development standards for firefighter station/work uniforms and the protective ensemble for structural fire fighting. Mr. Lawson has worked with the NIST Office of Law Enforcement Standards on a guide for the selection of personal protective equipment for emergency responders. His work involves participation on the NFPA Technical Committee on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, and the ASTM Committee F-23 on Protective Clothing and Equipment. He also works with the ASTM E-5 Committee on Fire Standards. Mr. Lawson is currently the chairman of ASTM Subcommittee E-5.15 on Fire Standards for Furnishings and Contents. He is also a member of the NFPA Fire Test Committee.
For more than four years, Mr. Lawson was the project leader for the World Trade Center, Fire Service Technologies and Guidelines investigation. This documented emergency response operations associated with the World Trade Center attack and provides recommendations for improving emergency responder and civilian safety at large incidents.
Currently, Mr. Lawson is working on the investigation of emergency response activities associated with the collapse of World Trade Center 7. In addition, he is studying the performance limits of electronic devices and radio frequency identification tags when used in emergency response thermal environments. |
