Dr Angela Solarte

Angela is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Future Building Initiative (FBI), Monash University. Her experience in construction and project management led her to work for the Costa Rican Fire Department, where her close interaction with fire-related tragedies sparked in her the desire to push her knowledge forward and to engage in fire safety research at The University of Queensland.

With the objective of exploring sustainable construction materials, her PhD thesis “Fire Performance Assessment for the Design of Safe Laminated Bamboo Structures” studied the fire behaviour of laminated bamboo, a novel engineered product with great potential to be included in the design and construction of future buildings. She has also been involved in state-of-the-art research within UQ Fire, studying the flammability characteristics of cladding products such as Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP), Polyurethane-based polyisocyanurate (PIR) foams, wooden fibre products, among others. She has also contributed to investigate the self-extinguishment mechanisms of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) at a full-scale to understand how to achieve fire-safe designs of timber buildings.

Angela strongly believes in the importance of interconnecting industry and research by creating knowledge that will enable the development of sustainable and fire-safe buildings. She hopes that her knowledge in fire safety engineering will be a great fit for the Future Building Initiative and for the School of Civil Engineering.