Keynote Speakers

Martin Brown, Transport of London

Martin had a lengthy career with HSE (the UK Safety Regulator) including practical experience of the safety and security issues of London Underground and the Channel Tunnel, a wide range of manufacturing industry (including defence and electronics) and the construction sector. He then moved to Tube Lines as Director Health, Safety and Environment, which included involvement in the service restoration and clear up following the 7/7 Kings Cross bombings. He is currently Director HSE for London Rail, part of Transport for London, where his responsibilities include staff and system security issues, including preparations for the London 2012 Olympics.

Dr Ricky Carvel is a Research Fellow and assistant director of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Originally from Edinburgh he studied at St Andrews University, obtaining a BSc (hons) in Chemistry and Physics in 1992 and an MPhil in Chemistry in 1994. Since then he has worked for the University of Aberystwyth, Heriot-Watt University, International Fire Investigators and Consultants and the University of Edinburgh.

He is editor of ‘The Handbook of Tunnel Fire Safety’ (Thomas Telford, London, 2005; 2nd Edition in press) and has been working in the field of tunnel fire phenomena since 1998. He is also an associate editor of the Fire Safety Journal.

His tunnel work has highlighted the influence that tunnel ventilation systems and tunnel geometry can have on the burning behaviour of various different types of fires in tunnels. In 2004 he was awarded a PhD from Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, Scotland) for his thesis “Fire Size in Tunnels”. In addition to tunnel fire safety research, he has also been involved into research in dust explosions, ignition, material flammability, CFD modelling and fire suppression.

He currently provides fire safety engineering consultancy services to a number of different companies, including Jacobs UK Ltd and some UK tunnel operators, primarily with regards to tunnel fire safety.

Marieke Martens, TNO

Marieke Martens is a traffic psychologist, working in the area of Human Factors and tunnel design for  15 years now. She is senior research scientist at TNO in the Netherlands, with a research position since 1996. Since 2009 she is also an Associate Professor at the Centre for Transport Studies at the University of Twente, also in the Netherlands.

Het main research field is to design tunnels for human use. This includes designing tunnels for optimal driving behaviour in normal behavior, but also to design for emergency evacuation and incidents. Optimal design in the tunnel operator centre and training the operators and emergency rescue teams is also of great importance.

Marieke has worked for national and international projects dealing with tunnel design, driving behaviour and accidents and incidents. She was involved in the European SAFESTAR project, dealing with tunnel design and exits and entries in tunnels, and she was work-package leader of the Human Factors work-package of the European UPTUN project, dealing with tunnel users, tunnel operators and rescue teams. She has been part of the PIARC WG3, concerning with human behaviour and calamities in tunnels, that is about to finish its third term.

Peter Johnson, Arup

Peter Johnson is a Principal and Fellow of the global consulting firm of Arup. He is also a Fellow of Engineers Australia and the Society of Fire protection Engineers and  Life Member and Board Advisor of the Fire Protection Association, Australia. He is a member of the Standards Australia committee on tunnels.

Peter has worked in the fire safety field for over 35 years, and has been involved in a wide range of building and infrastructure projects internationally. This has included design involvement in a significant number of road and rail tunnel projects, including the Fehmarnbelt tunnel proposed between Denmark and Germany, Airport Link tunnel in Brisbane, and Cross City tunnel in Sydney. Peter has a special interest in fire scenario development as the driver of fire engineering design and risk analysis.

William G. Connell, Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc

Bill Connell is Technical Director of Mechanical Engineering and an Assistant Vice President for Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc. USA.
Bill has over 32 years of experience working on major transportation infrastructure projects and is a recognized technical expert in fire and life-safety design requirements for road and rail tunnel facilities. He has been a member of the Technical Committee for NFPA 502 – Standard for Road Tunnel, Bridges and Limited Access Highways for more than sixteen years and has served as the committee’s Chairman since 2005.

William H. “Bill” Arrington, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Office of Highway and Motor Carrier
Bill was sworn in as a Maryland State Trooper in September, 1974 and enjoyed a very noteworthy and remarkable career for twenty-eight (28) years. Retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Bill’s last assignment was Deputy Superintendent, Chief of the Field Operations Bureau.

In October, 2002, Bill answered the call to serve when the Transportation Security Administration was created under the United States Department of Transportation shortly after the 9/11 attack. With a primary focus on aviation security for obvious reasons, Bill served as one of the first Area Directors in Aviation Operations with the responsibility for overseeing security at all commercial airports in the eastern half of the United States.

At the present time and for the last four and one half years, Bill has served as the General Manager for the Office of Highway and Motor Carrier Security under TSA’s Transportation Sector Network Management Directory. He has primary responsibility for commercial motor vehicle security which includes (trucks and motor coaches), school bus security and critical infrastructure (bridges and tunnels) security for our nation’s transportation systems which consist of more than four million miles of highway. Bill’s experience and expertise are reflective of his ability to lead and direct in the Nation’s critical transportation security arena.