Word from the Chairman

On behalf of FIRE, I am extremely proud to invite you to come and explore what we have to offer.

One of the great challenges facing each global industry is to educate engineers for the future. The refractory industry is no exception and there is a need for young engineers who are able to conceive, design, implement and operate complex, value-added refractory products to optimize the entire refractory life cycle. It is also essential to recognize that those young engineers will be called to work in an international team-based environment, hence will have to be trained to develop not only a working knowledge of technical fundamentals but also will have to learn and develop personal and interpersonal skills across cultural frontiers.

The educational goal to achieve this requires multidisciplinary skills across a range of subjects ranging from academic to industrial.  FIRE with its unique multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary composition can draw on these skills and provide a unique framework for furthering refractory education within the context of multi partner research programmes. We aim to stimulate and reinforce international education and research programmes for the refractory industry and aim to be a truly international across-borders Research and Industrial consortium.

I heartily encourage young graduates to come and investigate what FIRE can offer as the means of providing international exchanges as a precursor to an international career in the fascinating world extreme materials in the form of refractories either from an industrial or academic perspective.

Our strength is our unique grouping of expertise with members drawn from all sectors of the refractory producing, supplying and consuming industries coupled with the world’s leading academic institutions involved in refractory research. We are committed to a series of research programmes which are by definition pre-competitive and are aimed at leveraging the research network capability of FIRE with contributions from both industrial and academic partners. They are designed to further refractory science and provide a basis for education through academic research.

We welcome new industrial and academic members from around the world who can complement our skills and experience within the network.  I would encourage you to make contact with us to discuss what we do and how we can create value for you and your organization by being part of FIRE.

Chris Parr

FIRE Chairman