The SFPE Foundation, a charitable organization focused on enhancing the scientific understanding of fire and its interaction with the social, natural, and built environments, is pleased to celebrate the seven recipients of its 2026 awards, as follows: 

  • Professor Beth Weckman, P.Eng, University of Waterloo, Canada, presented the prestigious Arthur B. Guise Medal, endowed by R. Keith Guise. Professor Weckman has been a strong advocate for advancing fire safety science and engineering for decades. Until her recent retirement, she held the position of Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. Her research interests include fire dynamics, pools fires, hot surface ignition, and diagnostics, with her specific expertise in the development of improved diagnostic techniques for use in reacting and non-reacting flows, reacting turbulent flows, and stability considerations in turbulent flows. Her research has resulted in more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, more than 40 peer-reviewed conference papers, and more than 100 short communications and papers with peer-revied abstracts. A look at her Google Scholar site Beth Weckman - Google Scholar shows the extent of impact of her published work, with six papers being cited more than 100 times and 29 papers with at least 10 citations each. The most citied works include advancements in measurement technology and diagnostics for fire experimentation. These are absolutely critical contributions to the science of fire engineering. Her expertise and contributions have been significantly recognized over the years, not only in the publication, but as you will see in her CV, from being awarded more than CA$5,000,000 over her career. This level of funding does not come without stature in the discipline. Her publication history and research funding history are strong indicators of significant impact she has made in fire safety science and engineering. She has also been recognized by ATSM and others for transferring this knowledge into standards for all top benefit from.

  • Gülşah Ataş, PhD Candidate, RMIT University (Australia) – presented the Dr. Guylène Proulx, OC Scholarship for her research to further our understanding of human behavior in fire. Gulsah Atas's research uses immersive Virtual Reality (VR) driving simulations to study how people make decisions during real-time vehicle-based bushfire evacuations. The study will produce the first empirical dataset on en-route evacuation decision-making in bushfire conditions, integrating behavioral, physiological, and cognitive data collected in real time. This award also celebrates the support of his advisor, Dr. Erica Kuligowski (RMIT University).  

  • Tadele Mekuriaw Getu, PhD Candidate, Department of Civil Engineering, Queen's University, Canada, – presented a Student Scholar Award for his work to develop and validate a housing vulnerability classification to evaluate housing performance during wildfire events in a First Nations community. The specific objectives are to identify key vulnerability factors influencing structural damage, classify housing units based on these factors, evaluate the classification using observed wildfire damage, and examine how housing condition and limitations in mitigation influence structural outcomes. 

  • Maria Binte Mannan, Ph.D Candidate, University of Maryland, United States – presented a Student Scholar Award for her research focusing on advancing fire investigation through the development of quantitative, physics-based methodologies that bridge the gap between fire science and engineering practice. Traditional fire investigation relies heavily on qualitative interpretation of fire patterns, which can introduce subjectivity and uncertainty in determining fire origin, spread, and severity. To address this limitation, her research aims to establish measurable, data-driven approaches that enable more reliable, reproducible, and scientifically grounded fire damage assessment.

  • Mahadev (Dev) Rokade, PhD Student, Edinburgh Fire Research Centre, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Scotland – presented the Frederick W. Mowrer Global Scholar Award, endowed by Kathleen Almand, for his research on “Behaviour of Sustainable Concrete under Realistic Fire Exposure: Thermo-Mechanical Response, Cooling-Phase Damage and Implications for Performance-Based Fire Engineering.” 

"The SFPE Foundation is proud to recognize the 2026 SFPE Foundation award recipients," said Leslie Marshall, Ph.D., executive director, SFPE Foundation. The recipients' work exemplifies the scientific excellence and dedication that continue to advance the fire protection and fire safety profession. From pioneering research that expands our understanding of fire dynamics and human behavior to the next generation of fire safety solutions. We are honored to celebrate their achievement and are grateful to the donors whose support makes these awards possible."

The awards will be presented by Sean Donohue, chair, SFPE Foundation Awards Committee, Peter Senez, chair, SFPE Foundation Board of Governors, and Maria B. Marks, vice chair, SFPE Foundation Board of Governors during the SFPE Annual Conference & Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 6-8, 2026; registration for the conference is available at sfpe.org/annual26. Nominations for the SFPE Foundation’s 2027 awards will be solicited in early 2027.