Dr. Tanya Kerr, lecturer in the Department of Physics and coordinator of the Mona Fire Research Group (MFIRE) recently returned from two overseas exchanges aimed at boosting MFIRE’s capacities. Utilizing a scholarship from The Canada-CARICOM Faculty Leadership Program Dr. Kerr spent time with Prof. Beth Weckman and the fire research group she directs in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo (Canada), honing her skills in fire testing and design as well as learning computational fire modelling. She notes that from the experience she has made significant and critical modifications to the fire testing setup located in the Physics Department at Mona. She has also since developed a collaborative proposal with Prof. Weckman and her graduate student Alexandra De Freitas is currently enrolled in a UWaterloo fire performance testing course.  

Dr. Kerr also recently won the International Association of Arson Investigtors (IAAI) Foundation Scholarship - The John Charles Wilson - Robert Doran Sr. Scholarship which supported her recent attendance at the 2019 IAAI training conference in Jacksonville Florida. The conference covered several fire research topics including Forensic Applications of Fire Protection Systems, Fire Dynamics, Improving health and safety for fire investigators and marine and wildland fires.

Congrats Dr. Kerr!

For more on Dr. Kerr and her fire research https://www.mona.uwi.edu/physics/staff/academic/dr-tanya-kerr

The Canada-CARICOM Faculty Leadership Program supports international collaboration between Canadian post-secondary institutions and institutions in the CARICOM, through professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. For more see: https://educanada.ca/scholarships-bourses/can/institutions/cclsp-pblcc.a...

The IAAI Foundation Scholarship supports the movement of people from diverse backgrounds to participate in international training and testing on new information and science in fire investigation.  For more https://www.firearson.com/Training-Credentials/IAAI-Annual-International...