Thomas Gernay, an assistant professor in civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, explores and designs innovative alternatives to traditional structural fire protection. His pioneering computational modeling techniques and risk-based methodologies, which are used worldwide, are helping structural engineers, architects, and builders create buildings that are better able to avoid or withstand fire and other man-made and natural threats.

Gernay is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and serves on the ASCE/SEI (Structural Engineering Institute) Technical Committee on Fire Protection. He also serves on the ACI Fire Resistance and Fire Protection Committee for the American Concrete Institute and on the IAFSS Subcommittee on Research for the International Association for Fire Safety Science. His expertise contributed to the revision of Annex C of Eurocode 1992-1-2 for concrete columns in fire. In addition to authoring numerous presentations, book chapters, and articles, Gernay has delivered invited lectures at multiple institutions and frequently presents courses on the numerical software SAFIR he co-develops. Gernay is the recipient of the 2023 AISC Terry Peshia Early Career Faculty Award. Gernay is an associate editor of Fire Technology, the peer-reviewed journal of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Society of Fire Protection Engineering (SFPE).

Education History

  • M.S. Civil Engineering, University of Liege
  • Ph.D Engineering Sciences, University of Liege

Work Experience

Assistant Professor, JHU Whiting School of Engineering

Publications

Dr. Thomas Gernay has authored and co-authored more than 60 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and more than 70 articles in conference proceedings.
His publications can be accessed on his google scholar profile (https://scholar.google.be/citations?user=7spe3M0AAAAJ&hl=en) and through his ORCID profile (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3511-9226).

Honors and Awards

  • AISC Terry Peshia Early Career Faculty Award (2023)
  • IAFSS Magnusson Early Career Faculty Award (2023)
  • Foundation Medal, NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation (2020)

Professional Organizations

ASCE/SEI Fire Protection Committee
ACI 216 Fire Resistance Committee