Bob Zalosh is a Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Professor Emeritus and runs a consulting organization entitled Firexplo. Bob was a WPI Professor of Fire Protection Engineering from 1990 to 2006. Prior to that, Bob held various positions conducting and managing fire and explosion research at Factory Mutual Research Corporation (one of the predecessors of FM Global) over a 15-year period. Bob’s consulting activities have included conducting flammable gas and combustible dust hazard and risk assessments for many industrial facilities. He has conducted numerous industrial fire and explosion incident investigations for a wide variety of organizations including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Bob has been a member of the Hydrogen Safety Panel since its formation. He has led and participated on many Panel task groups dealing with generic hydrogen safety issues. Several of his consulting activities entailed hydrogen incident investigations and implementation of hydrogen incident prevention best practices.

Bob is the author of a textbook entitled Industrial Fire Protection Engineering, and co-authored the Center for Chemical Process Safety’s Guidelines for Safe Handling of Powders and Bulk Solids. He also is the author of the chapter on Explosions in the NFPA Handbook (19th and 20th Editions), and the chapter on Explosion Protection in The SFPE Handbook on Fire Protection Engineering (all editions). He is a member of the NFPA Committees on Explosion Protection, on Combustible Metals and on Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, and several advisory panels dealing with fire and explosion hazards. He has frequently provided pro bono consultation to the Boston Fire Department and New York City Department.