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University of Greenwich FSEG
University of Ulster FireSERT
University of Liverpool Centre for Investigative Psychology


The Project Team

The HEED project was a collaborative project which brought together the diverse expertise of the Universities of Greenwich, Liverpool and Ulster. Prof Ed Galea of the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences was the Principal Investigator. The core management team comprised of Prof Ed Galea, University of Greenwich, Prof David Canter of the Centre for Investigative Psychology, The University of Liverpool and Prof Jim Shields FireSERT University of Ulster.

The Project Management team consisted of:

Professor Ed Galea (contact: e.r.galea@gre.ac.uk)

Professor Ed Galea is the founding director of the Fire Safety Engineering Group at the University of Greenwich and is the lead investigator in the HEED project.  His work in fire safety engineering began after the tragic Manchester Boeing 737 fire, when he was commissioned by the UK Civil Aviation Authority to simulate the spread of fire and smoke in the disaster.  His research interests include the modelling of evacuation, people movement, fire/smoke spread, combustion and fire suppression in the built environment, rail, marine and aviation environments.  Professor Galea is the author of over 100 academic and professional publications related to fire.  He serves on a number of national and international standards and safety committees concerned with fire and evacuation including BSI, ISO, IMO and SFPE.  Prof Galea and his FSEG team has won a number of prestigious national and international awards for their research work including the Queen's Anniversary Prize 2003 and the European IST Award 2004.

Professor Jim Shields (contact: TJ.Shields@ulster.ac.uk)

Prof. Jim Shields is Emeritus Professor of  Faculty of Engineering, University of Ulster.  He was until January 2004, the founding Director of the Institute for Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology (FireSERT) at the University of Ulster.  Jim has over thirty years experience working in the field of fire safety engineering.  He has over 120 journal and other publications and three books to his credit.  He serves on many national and international committees concerned with fire safety engineering including NIBRAC, BSI, ISO, CENN and CIB.  His research interests include human behaviour in fire, people movement, evacuation simulation and fire dynamics.

Professor David Canter (contact: canter@liverpool.ac.uk)

Professor Canter started studying human actions in fires and similar emergencies in the late 1970's. This work, supported by government departments, and charitable trusts laid the foundations for current thinking on designing for and managing human behaviour. This work was the basis for Professor Canter's advice to a number of government enquiries into major fires. It developed into studies of safety in industry which became the basis for a very successful behavioural approach to reducing accidents in the steel, petrochemical and electricity generating industries.  It was on the basis of these successes that Professor Canter developed the investigative approach to applied psychology that is at the heart of his work with the police in 'offender profiling'.

The HEED project Team consisted of eight researchers from the Universities of Greenwich, Liverpool and Ulster. The team members were:

University of Greenwich:

Ms Rachel Day: Psychologist, member of the interview team (contact: r.c.day@gre.ac.uk)

Rachel is a Research Fellow on the HEED project based at the University of Greenwich. In 2004, she was awarded an MPhil in Psychology from the University of Exeter. Additionally, she holds a B.Sc (Hons.) in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Bath and a BTEC Diploma Professional Development Certificate in Counselling skills. Rachel has five years post graduate quantitative and qualitative research experience in academic and NHS clinical settings. She has conducted extensive in depth interviews with adults and adolescents in the following areas: autobiographical memory, trauma, mental health, general practice, and oncology. Rachel�s research experience will be applied to collecting and analysing the accounts of the WTC to improve our understandings of human behaviour during evacuations.

Rachel led the development of the study�s interview protocol, pre-interview questionnaire and HEED database. Her other duties included interview staff training. Rachel has been working on the project since its inception and is currently the longest serving member of the interview team.

Rachel continues her research into the WTC with FSEG and is also studying other aspects of behaviour related to evacuation.

Ms Lynn Hulse: Psychologist, member of the interview team (contact L.Hulse@gre.ac.uk)

Lynn is a Research Fellow on the HEED project, based at the University of Greenwich. Her academic qualifications include a PhD in Applied Cognitive Psychology, completed at the University of Aberdeen. Lynn has conducted extensive research on forensic issues, in particular examining the memories of civilian and emergency service eyewitnesses to emotional or traumatic crime events. In addition, she has worked with the Scottish Executive on providing national guidance for investigative interviewing and has been a volunteer worker with the charity, Victim Support. Her experience will be applied to collecting and analysing the accounts of World Trade center evacuees in order to better understand human behaviour during evacuations.

Lynn continues her research into the WTC with FSEG and is also studying other aspects of behaviour related to evacuation.

Mr Asim Siddiqui: Database and Web manager (contact: A.A.Siddiqui@gre.ac.uk)

Asim was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Computing Science with first class from the University of Greenwich in 1999 and in 2000 completed an MSc by Research (Computing) with distinction at the University of Greenwich. For his MSc project he developed an interactive web based query builder for the Aircraft Accident Statistics and Knowledge (AASK) database project funded by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. After completing his MSc, Asim joined the Fire Safety Engineering Group (FSEG) of the University of Greenwich as a Research Assistant. As a member of FSEG, Asim has been responsible for maintaining and further developing the AASK database and manages the FSEG website. Asim also works as a part-time Lecturer, teaching mainly database related courses in the School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences of the University of Greenwich. Asim is the Database and Web manager for the HEED project.

Asim continues to manage the WTC web site and database for FSEG and is also working on other evacuation related projects.

Mr Gary Sharp: Evacuation Modelling (contact: g.g.sharp@gre.ac.uk)

Gary was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Computing with first class from the University of Greenwich in 1999 and in 2001. Gary is currently undertaking a part time PhD in evacuation modelling and has extensive experience of evacuation simulation in maritime and building environments, including the planning and implementation of evacuation experiments. Gary's role on HEED is to undertake evacuation simulation of the WTC North Tower and to assist in the analysis of the data generated from the HEED interviews.

Gary continues his analysis work of the WTC data for FSEG and is continuing research for his PhD with FSEG.

University of Liverpool:

Ms Melissa Marselle: Psychologist, member of the interview team

Melissa Marselle graduated cum laude with a BA in Psychology from Oregon State University, USA in 2003 and in 2004 was awarded an MSc distinction in Environmental Psychology from the University of Surrey, UK. She has two years experience with psychological research methods and statistics. Her previous research was a quantitative and qualitative investigation into the psychological experience of a natural environment. She is a member of the USA national honour society of psychology and the International Association of People-environment Studies. Melissa is a member of the Investigative Psychology team at the University of Liverpool. She is currently working as a Research Psychologist on the HEED project, investigating the human egress behaviour of the survivors of the 9/11 WTC events.

Melissa Marselle is no longer with the project and has left the University of Liverpool.

Mr Paul V. Greenall: Psychologist member of the interview team

Paul was awarded a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Psychology with Criminal Justice from Liverpool John Moores University in 2001. In 2002, he was awarded a M.Sc. with Distinction in Forensic Psychology from the Manchester Metropolitan University and in 2005, a Postgraduate Certificate with Distinction in Forensic Sexology from the University of Central Lancashire. Paul�s interviewing experience stems from his administrative and research roles at Ashworth high security hospital near Liverpool and two prisons in Lancashire. These include dealing with various complaints, investigating the benefits of a prison based therapeutic community for substance abusers, and investigating the psycho-social needs and risk of re-offending of mentally disordered offenders. Paul is presently a member of the Centre for Investigative Psychology at the University of Liverpool where he is a research psychologist working on the HEED Project. Paul will be part of the interview team collecting and analysing survivor interview data.

Paul Greenall is no longer with the project and has left the University of Liverpool.

University of Ulster:

Ms Louise Summerfield: Psychologist, interview team leader

Louise was awarded a BSc (Hons) Psychology in 1995 from The University of Gloucestershire. She has since completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology with The Open University and an MSc in Qualitative Research Methods with The University of The West of England. Over the past 10 years Louise has worked with The U.K. National Health Service alongside U.K. academic institutions in a variety of Therapeutic, Management and Research roles. She has diverse experience of conducting and applying research to �real world� situations. Her most recent research projects have involved; interviewing farmers about their psychological coping mechanisms in order to provide an effective Clinical Psychology Service to them and interviewing professional carers of individuals with Dementia in order to provide a model of �Best Practice� in the use of Psychosocial Interventions. Louise has recently been appointed as the Research Fellow on the HEED project and is based within the FireSert Department of The University of Ulster. She hopes to be able to apply her skills to help evacuees from the World Trade Center Towers articulate their experiences and consequently to use those experiences to inform future High Rise building design.

Louise Summerfield is no longer with the project and has left the University of Ulster.

Dr Kirsty Martin: Anthropologist, member of the interview team

Kirsty Martin was awarded her Bachelor of Arts (Sociology and Anthropology) with first class honours from the University of Newcastle NSW, Australia in 1997. In October 2004 Dr Martin was awarded her Ph.D. from the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her ethnographic study is based on her extensive fieldwork including the designing and conducting of numerous interviews in Indonesia from January 2000 until January 2001. From 2001 to 2003 Dr Martin was an active member of the community organisation �Lifeline Australia� where she worked as a trained volunteer telephone counsellor. Since 2001, Dr Martin has lectured and tutored at various universities throughout New South Wales. Some of the subjects she has taught include Qualitative Research Methods, Introduction to Sociology, Social Anthropology, Sex and Gender in Asia and Anthropology, Identity and the Cinema. She has presented her research findings in Australia (NSW and VIC) and Indonesia. Dr Martin has recently joined the HEED project as a Researcher and is based within the FireSERT Department of The University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. She looks forward to drawing on her experience in the area of qualitative research and positively contributing to this research project on improving fire safety and design in medium to high-rise buildings.

Kirsty Martin is no longer with the project and has left the University of Ulster.

 

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