Pedro Reszka, associate professor in Chile, was hosted for 1 month by the Feux team. He was delighted to answer our questions!
1/ Can you tell us more about your background?
I work at the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (UAI) in Santiago, Chile, where I am Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Science. I was born in Chile, where I did my engineering and master’s studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2003). I then did my doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland (2008). Alongside my academic work, I also worked in industry, which helped me keep my “feet on the ground”. In particular, this gave me the opportunity to work in Peru and in USA in fire safety and industrial accident investigation companies. Since 2016, I’ve been working at UAI, where I’m involved in training mechanical and energy engineering students, and doing research in the field of fire safety. More specifically, I’m interested in the calorimetry and characterization of solid fuels, with applications in forest fires and structural fires. The aim is to recover effective properties from the combination of theoretical models and experimentation. Within our team, we also aim to contribute to improving fire safety in Chile, for example by developing techniques for quantifying the risk of forest fires in Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) zones.
2/ How did you come to visit LEMTA?
I was approached by Zoubir ACEM and Lucas TERREI, who are working on the pyrolysis and oxidation of wood, in the context of structural fires. This is a very important subject for the decarbonization of the building sector, where wooden structures could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and even store carbon. However, wood is combustible and creates risks that need to be managed, especially in multi-storey buildings.
The opportunity to come to France is very important for our team, enabling us to benefit from the complementarity between our two laboratories and also giving us greater international visibility. I’m very grateful that the Feux team has opened the doors of its laboratory to me: French researchers have the particularity of collaborating on an equal footing with researchers from less developed countries. This collaboration will also enable us to develop student exchange opportunities, both for Chilean students wishing to do research in France, and for French students wishing to do internships in Chile.
3/ What are the results of this visit?
I hope that by the end of this visit, we will have made progress in the modeling of wood pyrolysis and oxidation, integrating the results of experimental work carried out at LEMTA, useful to the international community. I also hope that this visit will be the first of several work placements, both in France and Chile. We look forward to welcoming you to Chile!
